Regional Guide
The Best Gardens in the North East
For a county better known for castles and coastline, the North East hides an extraordinary run of gardens — from a bold modern water garden and a Victorian industrialist’s hillside estate to a quarry turned exotic jungle and the ancestral home of Earl Grey himself. Here are the finest to visit, with what makes each special and where to plan your day.
The great gardens
Grand estates, walled gardens and national plant collections across Northumberland.
The Alnwick Garden
Alnwick
Grand Cascade · Poison Garden · Treehouse
One of the great contemporary gardens, built around the tumbling Grand Cascade — a vast, choreographed water feature. Its most notorious corner is the Poison Garden, home to around a hundred toxic and narcotic plants and open only on a guided tour, while one of the largest treehouses in Europe, complete with a restaurant, sits high in the lime trees. A full day out beside Alnwick Castle.
Plan a day in Alnwick→Cragside
Rothbury
National Trust · one of Europe's largest rock gardens
The hillside estate of the Victorian inventor Lord Armstrong — the first house in the world lit by hydroelectric power — wrapped in extraordinary gardens. There's one of the largest rock gardens in Europe, a formal terraced garden, and more than forty miles of lakeside and woodland walks, spectacular when the rhododendrons blaze in early summer or the leaves turn in autumn.
Wallington
near Morpeth (Cambo)
National Trust · walled garden & vast estate
At the heart of the largest intact estate in the National Trust's care sits a beautiful, sheltered Walled Garden, reached through the East Woods and the Neptune Gate. Inside are the Mary Pool, terraced borders, a conservatory and the Nuttery, while the wider estate of rolling hills and woodland offers walks for every energy level around the handsome house.
Plan a day in Morpeth→Belsay Hall, Castle & Gardens
near Ponteland
English Heritage · the Quarry Garden
Thirty acres of gardens link a Greek-revival mansion to a medieval pele-tower castle. The star is the astonishing Quarry Garden, carved from the very quarry that built the hall: its ravines and cliff faces create a sheltered microclimate where exotic plants thrive, including the giant rhubarb nicknamed 'dinosaurs' food'. A garden quite unlike any other in the region.
Explore Ponteland→Howick Hall Gardens & Arboretum
near Alnwick
Earl Grey's garden · snowdrops
The ancestral seat of the Earls Grey — yes, the family behind the tea — and one of Northumberland's loveliest hidden gardens, running to sixty-five acres of shrubs, trees and arboretum a few miles from the coast. Its celebrated snowdrop festival, from February into March, carpets the grounds in white; there's an Earl Grey teahouse for afterwards.
Plan a day in Alnwick→Kirkley Hall Gardens
Ponteland
National beech collection
The nine-acre gardens of a 17th-century hall, run by Northumberland College, with terraces, a sunken garden, a walled garden and demonstration beds. Their claim to fame is the National Collection of beech (Fagus) — found nowhere else — alongside national collections of ivy and dwarf willow, making it a quiet treat for plant enthusiasts on the edge of Ponteland.
Explore Ponteland→Plan & book your visit
- Join the National Trust→— free entry to Cragside & Wallington
- Join English Heritage→— free entry to Belsay
- Book garden & attraction tickets→— The Alnwick Garden & more
- Find places to stay in Northumberland→
Make a day of it
Gardens pair beautifully with the region’s castles , market towns and museums, and sit high on any list of the North East’s best days out. Browse the full Visit the North East guide for local tips, or see what’s on this weekend.