The gardens at Beningbrough Hall

Two people walking along a floral border — Taking a stroll through the acres of formal gardens

Discover the formal gardens, walled kitchen garden and herbaceous borders that make up the many gardens at Beningbrough

A labour of love

There are over eight acres of formal gardens to explore, relax among the flowers or maybe compare the size of your vegetables. They include working walled kitchen garden with large fruit collection, several herbaceous borders and less formal areas managed for wildlife. Each area tends to be at its best at a different time of year and watching the season change is often a reason visitors return time after time.

Video

Explore the Beningbrough gardens

Gardener Mark knows the formal gardens inside out. He's worked in the walled garden for over 20 years and knows all about out the produce we grow and seasonal wildlife. Join him for a short video looking at the summer highlights in some of the borders and what you might expect when visiting at different times of the year.

Double herbaceous border

The heady scent of mock orange fills the air along the pathway through this part of the garden, at its best in early summer. Pastel colours prevail in swathes of perennials including geraniums, peonies and wisteria growing up obelisk frames.

A little piece of Italy

Beningbrough was built in 1716 by John Bourchier following his Grand Tour around Europe and was particularly inspired by his stay in Italy. The Italian border is filled in high summer with colourful Mediterranean blooms suited to hot climates and periods of drought but still able to withstand the Yorkshire climate.

Bulbs, blossom and blooms

Often described as a garden for all seasons, the changes throughout the year can be tracked with a different area looking at its best. Winter structure makes way for the first shoots and bulbs. Falling blossom petals create carpets of colour and borders fill with summer blooms turning in time to autumn seed heads.

A view of the double border in summer at Beningbrough — Stroll through the borders in all their glory

See 300,000 bulbs in the new ha-ha walk

Many visitors helped to mark the 300th year of the hall by helping to plant 300,000 bulbs to create a new walk along the south ha-ha. As winter turns to spring this area is swathed in seas of whites from snowdrops to pale purples of crocus and yellows of daffodils. Stretch your legs and soak in the views over the south parkland and beyond.

Bedding out Victorian style

The West Formal Garden sits next to the conservatory, a Victorian addition to the hall. The planting changes twice a year, as was the Victorian fashion to show off the brightest and boldest plants and foliage. The East Formal, in contrast, is a cool, scented space to watch the fish or sit in the summer house.

Walled Garden

Over 50 varieties of apples & pears, plus many other fruits & vegetables, are cultivated using traditional methods in two acres of enclosed kitchen garden. Harvested produce is used in the restaurant and surplus sold through the shop.

Download the Beningbrough Walled Garden fruit plan (PDF / 0.2MB) download

Cold frames and a glasshouse in the Kitchen Garden at Beningbrough Hall, North Yorkshire — All the food grown at Beningbrough Hall is used by the Walled Garden Restaurant

The garden vision

Award winning garden designer Andy Sturgeon has been appointed to develop a long term vision for the formal gardens at Beningbrough. This vision will come to life over the next ten years. The 300,000 bulbs planted along the ha-ha walk in autumn 2016 were the first changes introduced. And the next major part of the development has started with the creation of the Pergola next to the restaurant, ready for spring 2018 - keep up to date with the garden vision.