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Please check with garden owners or their website to confirm current dates open
Garden Caf? & Shop opening times:
5th Jan - 3rd March 11-4 Saturday & Sunday only
11th Feb - 17th Feb 11-4 Monday - Friday
10th March - 3rd Nov 11-5 Everyday
4th Nov - 31st Dec 11-4 Everyday (closed 25th December)
Last admission 30mins before closing.
Some parts of the garden are closed every Friday and Saturday during the winter months of January, February, November and December.
10th March - 3rd Nov 1-5pm Monday - Thursday & Sunday. Two guided house tours available 12 to 1 (places limited, £1 per person can be booked or taken on the day, if available). A timed ticket system will be in operation on Sundays, bank holidays and school holidays.
Gift Aid Admission (Standard Admission prices in brackets):
£10.50 (£9.45, child £5.25 (£4.73), family £25 (£22.50). Groups (15+) £8.90, child £4.45. Garden only: £6.50 (£5.85), child £3.25 (£2.93). Admission free to garden 1st January to 10th March and 5th November to 31st December. 20{78c5981cc65ef312afd2a01238b92ad49ab85a4991a386013c7fa8e22d3121d9} off garden entrance charge on Fridays and Saturdays.
Manual & powered buggies available, guided walks.
Beautiful medieval house, extended in Elizabethan times, surrounded by rich gardens and estate in Cumbria's special limestone country; Exceptional series of oak-panelled rooms culminating in the Inlaid Chamber; Portraits, fine furniture and ceramics accumulated over centuries on display; Garden includes two lakes and a superb rock garden; Many walks from the castle to dramatic viewpoints over Morecambe Bay to the Lake District fells; Still inhabited by the Strickland family by whom it was built in the Middle Ages
Crosthwaite House, Crosthwaite Uplands Hotel, Cartmel Punch Bowl Inn, Crosthwaite
Punch Bowl Inn, Crosthwaite Strickland Arms at entrance to property
Two of the main features in this garden are the 14th century Pele-tower covered in climbers which in autumn glows a fiery red and the Rock Garden, much restored by the Trust, which is rightly regarded as one of the best in the country. It is set in a dell fed by streams, pools and waterfalls from the lake above. When first planted, it was quite open but encroaching conifers have made it more secluded as time has passed. These conifers, many of the dwarf varieties, especially on the lower banks, are features in themselves and make the numerous winding walks amongst them a very enjoyable experience. In the Rock Garden the original alpines have been replaced by wet-loving plants, especially ferns, making this one of the best collections in Britain, but the main reason why the Rock Garden is so successful is that it sits well amongst the limestone outcrops, screes and cliffs that abound naturally on the large 1,500 acre estate.
Nearer to the castle, the terraces with their shrubs and climbers, glorious in their autumn tints, the spectacular maples and recently restored Dutch Garden full of flowering cherries, make this a garden to be visited from early Spring to late Autumn with so much to delight the eye at all times.
Sizergh Castle was originally built as a bastion against the marauding Scots to the north on one of the few passable routes south for invading bands. It was the home of the Strickland family for 750 years before being acquired by the National Trust. The firm of T. R. Hayes of Ambleside was brought in in 1926 to design and build the rock garden using natural local limestone materials. They were also responsible for some of the terracing near the house and a flight of stone steps leading down to a tower above the lake.