Visiting Stourhead National Trust
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One of the first places we visited on our holiday to Wiltshire in the Easter holidays was Stourhead National Trust. We’d been to Stourhead once before, as a stop off on a long drive back from Cornwall, but were looking forward to having the whole day to explore.
Where is Storuhead?
Stourhead is in Wiltshire, just off the A303 – that long road you drive along past Stonehenge! It’s not far from Longleat and easily accessible from the local area and further afield, with plenty of parking on site.
What is Stourhead?
Stourhead is what has been described as ‘a living work of art’. It’s a world famous landscape garden with a lake at it’s centre, surrounded by classical temples, mystical grottoes, and rare and exotic trees.
It’s home to Stourhead house, just one attraction on the vast Stourhead estate with its chalk downs, ancient woods and farmland. Complete with a visitor centre, plant centre, shop, ice cream parlour and restaurant, It’s one of the biggest National Trust sites we have been to in long time and it was a real joy to explore.
Visiting Stourhead
We arrived at Stourhead in the late morning and parked easily in the ample car park. National Trust members get free parking and we were soon exploring the Stourhead Estate – with our first port of call being the beautiful Palladian house.
Stourhead house was one of the first grand Palladian-style villas to be built in England and it was great to explore. There are lockers around the corner from the entrance to store large bags in and then we were free to wander around the one way system within the house.
We got to see the grand library and so many rooms full of incredible works of art. The house is huge and it is full of so many things to look at. You could easily spend hours within its walls.
After the house we wandered around the stable yard and walled garden, buying some hot drinks along the way. We enjoyed exploring the grounds and before long found ourselves at the Spread Eagle Inn, in a gorgeous courtyard surrounded by shops and refreshment kiosks.
This was a great stop for lunch – and there’s plenty of seating for a picnic. The pub is a lovely addition to the site – and something I’ve never seen in a National Trust before! Plus, Stourhead is so dog friendly, with water bowls everywhere.
After a pit stop we carried on our walk and took a loop of the lake, taking in the landscape gardens and views along the way.
We saw the Temple of Flora, the Temple of Apollo and the Pantheon – which was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. They are all glorious buildings, with signs to read, cards depicting things for children to spot and just so much to see. Plus, most have benches dotted around to take a load off whilst you admire the buildings, statues and decorations.
We ended up spending the best part of the day at Stourhead and it was a great way to kick off our holiday. It’s a beautiful site, with so much to see, and there were plenty of Easter activities for little ones too – and a play area that we had a very short pit stop in as our kids are a little on the big side now!
If you’re ever in the Wiltshire/Somerset area and looking for a day out or somewhere to stop on a long journey, Stourhead National Trust would be a great choice. We had such a nice day there.
You can find out more about Stourhead National Trust over on their website and for reference the address is: Stourton, Warminster BA12 6QD
