Prior Park Landscape Garden National Trust
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We love exploring new National Trust properties when we travel around the UK and one of the latest places we visited was Prior Park Landscape Garden when we holidayed in Wiltshire in the Easter holidays. It’s somewhere we hadn’t heard of before, only stumbling across it due to the famous Palladian bridge, and found it to be a real hidden gem!
Where is Prior Park Landscape Garden?
Prior Park Landscape Garden is just south of Bath city centre. It’s on a main bus route but doesn’t have parking on site. However, we parked easily up the hill from Prior Park on standard street parking.
What is Prior Park Landscape Garden?
Prior Park Landscape Garden is billed as a beautiful and intimate 18th-century landscape garden with one of only four Palladian bridges found in the world. There’s no house at Prior Park, with the centrepiece being the Palladian bridge, but it’s still a really nice place to spend a few hours.
Our visit to Prior Park Landscape Garden
We had such a nice visit to Prior Park Landscape Garden – although we hadn’t been aware how steep and hilly it was until we got there! From our parking we had to walk down a hill, which we knew we’d then have to climb back up afterwards. It was definitely a baptism of fire but well worth the exertion.
When we arrived we received a friendly greeting and the staff pointed us in the direction of the best route around the gardens as well as telling us where the toilets and tea cabin were located. They couldn’t have been more helpful.
Dating back to the 1700s, Prior Park is a magical landscape garden full of winding paths, created by Ralph Allen. Our walk took us past a waterfall and along a long lake that had been designed to look like a river. It was beautiful – and lulled us into a false sense of security, as this part of the garden was very flat!
However, we soon were walking up hill and admiring incredible views over bath – and of Prior Park House behind us, which is now part of a college. The views were amazing, and a real highlight of the visit, but we also got our first glimpses of the Palladian bridge below us too.
The walk took us back downhill to the edge of a lake and a welcome stop at the Tea Cabin which had a great range of hot drinks and snacks available. The whole site also had paper bags and recipe cards to take, inviting visitors to pick wild garlic. This was lovely and definitely something we would have done if we weren’t on holiday!
After our little pit stop we got to see the historic Palladian bridge from different angles and even walk across it. It was beautiful and in such great condition too. It dates back to 1755 and was inspired by Italian architect Andrea Palladio. Other similar bridges can be seen at Stowe National Trust, Wilton House and in St. Petersburg in Russia.
After the bridge it was time to climb the hill back to the exit and walk back to the car – although there us another entrance/exit at the opposite end of the gardens for direct access to Bath.
The walk back up to the top was a struggle for all of us. I have always felt quite fit and usually walk fairly quickly but the walk up to the top was more of a climb and definitely not quick at all. We were all glad of a rest at the top before another hike back to the car!
We were all so glad we visited Prior Park. It was utterly beautiful with some of the best views of Bath we have ever seen. Just be aware of how steep it is before you visit as it’s not a climb that the littlest of legs – or anyone with mobility issues – would cope with easily.
You can find out more about Prior Park Landscape Garden over on their website and for reference the address is: Ralph Allen Drive, Bath, Somerset, BA2 5AH
