Garden & Home Directory · North
The Best Gardens to Visit in the North of England
Our pick of the best gardens to visit in the North of England (Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne & Wear, Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Yorkshire), every address checked.
The Alnwick Garden
Alnwick, Northumberland
A grand, ambitious garden designed by Jacques and Peter Wirtz to the Duchess of Northumberland's vision, with spectacular water features and geometric ornamental gardens. Pre-booking is now essential.
See details →RHS Garden Harlow Carr
Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Voted the best garden in the North East by Garden News readers, known for its lavish prairie-style Main Borders and the moisture-loving plants of Streamside.
See details →RHS Garden Bridgewater
Worsley, Salford, Greater Manchester
The RHS's fifth garden, opened in 2021 on 154 acres of the former Worsley New Hall estate, with the 11-acre Weston Walled Garden at its heart.
See details →Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden
Near Ripon, North Yorkshire (National Trust)
A World Heritage Site where John Aislabie laid out Georgian water gardens, ponds, statues and follies beside the abbey ruins in the 18th century.
See details →Levens Hall
Near Kendal, Cumbria
Twelve acres of gardens famous for their topiary, including chess-piece shapes, with rose and herb gardens and an orchard.
See details →Arley Hall and Gardens
Near Northwich, Cheshire
An RHS partner garden whose double herbaceous border, shown on a plan of 1846, is believed to be the first of its kind planted in England.
See details →Tatton Park Japanese Garden
Knutsford, Cheshire
Created in 1910 and widely called the finest Japanese garden in Britain, with a Shinto shrine, a thatched tea house and a bridge over the Golden Brook; usually seen on guided walks.
See details →Ness Botanic Gardens
Neston, Wirral, Cheshire
Founded by Arthur Bulley in 1898 and given to the University of Liverpool in 1948, rich in plants from collectors such as George Forrest, with views over the Dee estuary.
See details →Holker Hall & Gardens
Cark-in-Cartmel, near Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria
Some 25 acres of woodland and formal gardens, with a Thomas Mawson rose garden, a walled kitchen garden and National Plant Collections; an RHS partner garden.
See details →Belsay Hall Quarry Garden
Belsay, Northumberland (English Heritage)
A romantic garden of ravines and sheer rock faces, cut where the stone for the hall was quarried, whose sheltered microclimate grows tender plants far beyond their usual northern limit.
See details →
Checked October 2026. Opening times, prices and delivery terms change, so please check before you travel or order.