An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Cotswolds has some iconic castles, houses and gardens to visit
Left: Arlington Row, Bibury
BERKELEY CASTLE
The most remarkable thing about the Castle is that for nine centuries, the building, the Berkeley family, the archives (which go back to the 12th Century), the contents, the estate and the town have all survived together.
Its place in history is significant, not just because it is still intact, but because the Berkeley family and their home have played an important part in the power struggles of so many centuries.
BLEINHEIM PALACE
A World Heritage Site and ‘Britain’s Greatest Palace’, Blenheim Palace and Park is the ancestral home of the Duke of Marlborough and his successors.
BOURTON HOUSE GARDEN
An award-winning three acre garden surrounding a fine 18th century Manor House - situated 2 miles west of Moreton in Marsh on the A44.
BROADWAY TOWER
Broadway Tower & Park is a family-owned Cotswold destination set within a 50-acre estate of parkland, allowing visitors to experience great English heritage in an inspiring location. Your ticket includes all you need for a memorable day – Tower Museum with roof platform, the Deer Park or walking the grounds with your picnic.
BROUGHTON CASTLE
Broughton Castle is a moated and fortified manor house near Banbury in North Oxfordshire. Set in parkland and built of the rich local Hornton ironstone, it was selected by Simon Jenkins as one of only twenty to be awarded five stars in his book England’s Thousand Best Houses.
Broughton Castle is home to the 21st Lord and Lady Saye & Sele, whose family name is Fiennes. The ownership of the Castle has remained in the same family since 1447.
BUSCOT PARK
Family home of Lord Faringdon, who continues to care for the property as well as the family art collection, the Faringdon Collection, which is displayed in the house.
Consequently, despite the grandeur of their scale, both the house and grounds remain intimate and idiosyncratic and very much a family home.
CERNEY HOUSE GARDENS
Cerney House Gardens is a romantic, secret place in the Cotswolds, near to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. They are part of the home of the Angus family. Set around a Victorian walled garden, they are described by Country Living as "what most people aspire to in their gardens – and few achieve".
CHARLECOTE PARK
Overlooking the river Avon on the edge of Shakespeare’s Stratford, Charlecote Park has been part of this corner of rural Warwickshire for centuries. Still the Lucy family home after 900 years, you can explore the vision of the Victorian owners George Hammond Lucy and his wife, the formidable Mary Elizabeth, who extended their home and filled it with treasures from their European travels.
CHASTLETON HOUSE
Discover the myths and memories of an ancient country house, a compelling time capsule of 400 years of family life . A rare gem of a Jacobean country house, Chastleton House was built between 1607 and 1612 by a prosperous wool merchant as an impressive statement of wealth and power.
Owned by the same increasingly impoverished family until 1991, the house remained essentially unchanged for nearly 400 years as the interiors and contents gradually succumbed to the ravages of time.
COUGHTON COURT
Coughton Court is an imposing Tudor house set in beautiful gardens with a collection of Catholic treasures .
Coughton Court is the home of the Throckmorton family who have lived at Coughton since 1409. John de Throckmorton, Under Treasurer of England to Henry VI, acquired Coughton in the early 15th Century. Their descendants have held it for 600 years and, although the National Trust has owned the house since 1946, the family still live here.
DYRHAM PARK
Ancient deer park, 17th Century house and garden . A £10-million project is underway to restore, revitalise and reimagine Dyrham Park, created in the 17th century by William Blathwayt.
The 270-acre ancient parkland is full of magnificent trees and breathtaking views. Splendid borders, idyllic ponds and a wildflower orchard are all features of the stunning garden which is being sensitively developed as a 21st-century garden with echoes of the past.
HIDCOTE MANOR GARDEN
Arts and Crafts-inspired garden with intricately designed outdoor spaces in the rolling Cotswold hills.
Hidcote is an Arts and Crafts garden in the North Cotswolds, a stone’s throw from Stratford-upon-Avon. Created by the talented American horticulturist, Major Lawrence Johnston, its colourful and intricately designed outdoor ‘rooms’ are always full of surprises.
HIGHGROVE
Highgrove is the private residence of TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, near Tetbury in Gloucestershire. Since 1980 when the Prince of Wales first arrived at Highgrove, His Royal Highness has devoted much energy to transforming the gardens around the house, which are renowned as some of the most inspiring and innovative in the United Kingdom.
KELMSCOTT MANOR
Kelmscott Manor was the inspirational Cotswold retreat of William Morris, Victorian textile designer, poet, novelist & Father of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Described as a ‘Heaven on Earth’ by Morris, he loved the Manor house and adjoining farm buildings as a work of true craftmanship, totally unspoilt and unaltered, and in harmony with the surrounding countryside.
KIFTSGATE COURT GARDENS
The creation of three generations of women gardeners, Kiftsgate Court Gardens, a mere stonesthrow from Hidcote Manor Gardens, boasts Rosa filipes ‘Kiftsgate’. In early to mid July, it is a remarkable sight when it is covered in panicles of white blooms and resembles a cascading waterfall amongst the trees
LODGE PARK AND SHERBORNE ESTATE
England's only surviving 17th-century grandstand, within a tranquil Cotswold estate full of diverse wildlife , John 'Crump' Dutton built this 17th Century grandstand, fuelled by his passion for deer coursing, gambling, banqueting and entertaining.
Sherborne Park Estate is a working estate and has an abundance of wildlife, from fallow and roe deer to badgers and foxes.
PAINSWICK ROCOCCO GARDEN
Painswick Rococo Garden is quirky and pretty unique. Designed in the 1740s as a fanciful pleasure garden for the owner of Painswick House and his guests, today it’s a place to roam free, to get up close and personal with nature, or to feel the warmth of the sun on your face as you take in the spectacular views of the Cotswold countryside and magical follies.
SEZINCOTE
Sezincote is unique. At the heart of a traditional, family-run estate covering 3,500 acres of rolling Cotswold countryside stands a 200-year-old Mogul Indian palace, set in a romantic landscape of temples, grottoes, waterfalls and canals reminiscent of the Taj Mahal.
SNOWSHILL MANOR AND GARDEN
Snowshill Manor is a Cotswold manor house packed with extraordinary treasures collected over a life time by Charles Wade
The garden is the perfect place to unwind and explore hidden vistas, quiet corners and unexpected delights including Charles Wade’s uncomplicated home, the Priest’s House
STANWAY HOUSE AND FOUNTAIN
Located in the heart of the Cotswolds, Stanway is an outstandingly beautiful example of a Jacobean manor house famous for its 300 feet single-jet fountain, the highest in Britain and the highest gravity fountain in the world.
SUDELEY CASTLE
With royal connections spanning a thousand years, Sudeley Castle has played an important role in the turbulent and changing times of England’s past.
Today Sudeley Castle remains the only private castle in England to have a queen buried within the grounds - Queen Katherine Parr, the last and surviving wife of King Henry VIII – who lived and died in the castle.
UPTON HOUSE AND GARDENS
Lord and Lady Bearsted’s 1930s country retreat and English gardens, displaying the Shell Chairman’s outstanding art collection.
Discover Upton House and Gardens, the country house high on the Warwickshire hill, where 2nd Viscount Bearsted, Walter Samuel, created one of the finest art collections in twentieth-century England.
WESTBURY COURT GARDEN
Dutch water garden - a rare and beautiful survival . Originally laid out between 1696 and 1705, Westbury Court Garden is the only restored Dutch style water garden in the country.
WOODCHESTER PARK
Beautiful secluded wooded valley, this tranquil valley contains a 'lost landscape' with remains of an 18th and 19th Century landscape park with a chain of five lakes. Park Mill Pond is the last of these lakes and features a man-made island that is now a heronry.