Wentworth Castle Gardens National Trust
On our way up north in the Easter holidays we wanted to stop off somewhere to break up the journey and stretch our legs. Our first option is always to find a nice National Trust to stop off at, making good use of our membership. And on this trip we chose Wentworth Castle Gardens as our stop off point.
What is Wentworth Castle Gardens?
Wentworth Castle Gardens is a National Trust site in South Yorkshire. Although the main castle isn’t open to the public, there are glorious gardens, woodland and parkland to explore and enjoy as well as a conservatory glass house, Stainborough Castle and a pretty fantastic playground.
We picked up a picnic en route and parked easily at Wentworth Castle Gardens. There’s plenty of well managed, free parking. We had our National Trust passes scanned at the reception and were pointed in the direction of all the big things to see.
We worked our way around Wentworth Castle Gardens in a vague loop, heading to the cafe for hot drinks and a toilet break before starting our adventure! The natural way of walking takes you past Wentworth Castle and then branches off so you can explore different areas of the site.
We saw the victorian conservatory and so went to explore. The main conservatory building and all the land around it has been redeveloped recently and is all really fresh and new. There’s also toilets here and a refreshment stand outside – although food and drinks aren’t allowed in the conservatory.
The conservatory was great – so nice and warm, well laid out and with a vintage feel despite all the trees and plants being in pristine condition. It was a lovely place to spend time.
After the conservatory we carried on our wander, through the trees until we reached Stainborough Castle. Although not the most castley castle I have ever seen, it consists of beautiful circular ramparts you can walk along, plenty of viewpoints and even some parts where you can go inside.
We loved exploring this castle and it’s a great place to have a picnic, let the kids run around and just blow off some steam. Although it’s the furthest part of the site it is well worth making your way to.
We spent time wandering around the more formal gardens and parkland before heading back to Wentworth Castle to make the most of the play area in the sun!
The Wentworth Castle Gardens playground is one of the best I have ever seen at a National Trust. There are big climbing structures, wooden trim trails, swings and so much more. Young children could happily spend all day there but our two still managed a good hour or so.
We had such a nice time at Wentworth Castle Gardens. It’s a beautiful National Trust and a really large site, meaning there is so much to explore and you’ll never see it all on one trip!
We’d given ourselves two hours to explore Wentworth Castle Gardens – and it really wasn’t long enough! We’re already planning to go back again at a later date.
You can find out more about Wentworth Castle Gardens over on their website and for reference the address is: Park Dr, Barnsley S75 3EN
