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Garden Name: Killerton House
Last Modified: 18/01/2011
Garden ID: 0235

pic: 0235_Killerton.jpg

Owner: National Trust
Address:
Broadclyst
Exeter

Postcode: EX5 3LE
County: Devon

tel: 01392-881345
fax: 01392-883112
website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/killerton
email: killerton {at} nationaltrust.org.uk

Features: 
Ice House, Rock garden, Chapel. Fine 18th-century house with costume collection, hillside garden and estate; Home to the 'Paulise de Bush' costume collection, with over 9,000 outfits; Delightful hillside garden featuring rhododendrons, magnolias, and rare trees; Stunning parkland walks all year round, Home-cooked, good quality regional food in tea-room and restaurant; Plant centre selling produce grown in peat-free compost

English Heritage Grade:
II*

Opening Times:
Garden / Park: All year, 10:30 - 7, Sun - Sat
Last admission 30mins before closing

Best Times of Year to Visit: 
Spring and early Summer

To see: 
Bulbs, Rhododendrons and Azaleas.

National Collection: 


National Garden Scheme days: Yes
Comments: 

Parties / Coaches: Yes 
Comments: 

Viewing by Appointment: Yes
Comments:  

House Open for Viewing: Yes
Comments: 12th Feb - 11th Mar; daily; 12noon - 4pm
12th Mar - 31st Oct; daily; 11am - 5pm
3th Dec - 23rd Dec; daily; 2pm - 4pm

Admission Prices:
Gift Aid Admission (Standard Admission prices in brackets)
House , garden and park: adult £9 (£8.15), child £4.50 (£4.05), family £22 (£20), family (1 adult and 3 children) £13.85 (£12.50).
Garden and park: adult £6.50 (£5.90), child £3.25 (£2.80). Park only: adult £2.50 (£2.25), child £1.25 (£1.10). Whole estate: adult £15 (£13.60), child £7.50 (£6.80). Reduced rate when arriving by bicycle or public transport. Garden and park: reduced rate November to January

Parking: Yes
Lavatories: Yes
Disabled Access: Yes
Shop: Yes
Plants for Sale: Yes
Lunches: Yes
Teas: Yes
Refreshments: Yes
Picnics: Yes
Dogs allowed: No
Only on Lead: No
Events: Yes

Other Facilities:
Dogs on lead in parkland only. No access for disabled to first floor of house.
Specially adapted buggies (with drivers) give less able visitors the chance to view the sloped gardens.
Many special garden events - see own website.
Restaurant open on occasion in Dec, Jan & Feb.


Designer: John Veitch
Description of Garden:
A beautiful hillside garden for all seasons. In early spring, the grass slopes are successively carpeted with spring bulbs and wild flowers, whilst magnolia, crimson and pink rhododendron and sweetly scented azalea flower above. The herbaceous and tender borders are at their best in summer and in autumn the specimen trees flame into colour. Even in winter, there is always something to see.

Killerton is a plantsman's paradise, with rare trees and shrubs from around the world, many of them the first of their kind to be planted in this country. Other special features of the garden include the thatched Bear's Hut, which once housed a Canadian black bear, a rock garden and the ice house, used in Victorian times for storing ice cut from ponds on the estate. 


History: 
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland started the collection of trees at Killerton when he planned a landscape park to surround the new house he had built in the 1770s. His gardener and land steward was John Veitch who developed into an exceptional landscaper. The Veitch family, who started a nursery at nearby Budlake, were amongst the first to send plant hunters out to gather new species from the wild and, in fact the association between the Aclands and Veitches, whereby new plants were continually added to the collection at Killerton, was maintained until 1939 (with the exception of a period of 30 years after Sir Thomas's death). A giant sequoia from the west coast of America, which still stands at Killerton was grown from seed sent back by Veitch's collector William Lobb in the 1850s.

Local Inns: 
Five Bells, Clyst Hydon
Jack in the Green, Rockbeare
Red Lion, Broadclyst

Accomodation: 
Many in Exeter

Restaurants: 
Jack in the Green, Rockbeare

Village/Town/Sightseeing: 
Exeter
Dartmoor