A Garden for All Seasons

The year begins quietly with carpets of naturalised winter aconites and snowdrops, followed by hellebores, cyclamen, trilliums, crocus and drifts of daffodils through the parkland.

By May and June the gardens are at their most abundant, with irises, old roses, paeonies and clematis filling the borders and planting along the stream.

Summer gradually gives way to the deeper colours of crocosmia and phlox, carrying the garden into autumn.

There is always something beginning, flowering, fading or being prepared for the season ahead.

The Walled Kitchen Garden

The walled kitchen garden has been in continuous production for more than 150 years and remains an important part of everyday life at Burtown.

Fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers are grown throughout the seasons, with produce travelling the short distance from garden to kitchen at The Green Barn and Burtown Pantry.

Flowers are gathered for the house, restaurant and tables across the estate.

It is not simply a garden preserved for visitors, but a working garden that continues to play a part in the life of Burtown.

The Nutgrove

Surrounded on all sides by water, the woodland garden known as the Nutgrove has an atmosphere entirely of its own.

Beneath the canopy are candelabra primulas, hostas, ferns and iris, alongside many unusual plants introduced to Burtown over generations.

Paths wind through the woodland and along the water, creating one of the quietest and most atmospheric parts of the gardens.

Shaped by Generations

The gardens tell much of the story of the family who have lived at Burtown.

Isabel Shackleton — who married into the family and was a first cousin of the explorer Ernest Shackleton — was responsible for much of the original layout.

Later, botanical artist Wendy Walsh brought many of her rare plants to Burtown from her garden in Lusk. A number of these plants had appeared in her botanical paintings and continue to grow here today.

Her daughter, the artist Lesley Fennell, together with her son James, subsequently enlarged and reclaimed significant areas of the gardens, continuing a tradition of gardening that has passed through generations.

The result is not a garden belonging to one particular period, but one that carries the imprint of many different hands.

A Working Garden

The gardens continue to evolve.

They provide flowers for the tables, produce for the kitchens, inspiration for artists and photographers and, perhaps most importantly, an extraordinary landscape in which to live and work.

New planting sits alongside plants that have been here for generations. Areas are reclaimed, replanted and allowed to change.

Like Burtown itself, the gardens have never stood still.

Visiting the Gardens

The gardens surrounding Burtown House form part of our private family estate and are no longer generally open for casual admission.

They can be enjoyed by guests staying at Burtown and by pre-booked groups, allowing us to share the gardens in a more personal and considered way.

For those wishing to explore the wider estate, our Farm Walks offer a self-guided journey through the farmland, woodland and historic landscape of Burtown.

Enquire About a Group Garden Visit