Around Bath and Bristol, National Trust gardens are filling with colourful spring blooms and houses are looking tip-top after their intensive winter cleans. There’s loads going on this season from Easter adventure trails and guided walks to foraging and trail runs.
What’s more, every time you experience a National Trust day out, you help care for these special places for future generations.
Here is what’s happening near you this spring, please check property website for opening days and times:
Avebury
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wiltshire/avebury
Easter trail at Avebury
1-21 April. 10am-5pm
Explore the garden and take part in lots of Easter games and challenges to claim your chocolate egg.
Price: £3.50 per trail (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Guided tour of Avebury Manor Garden
24 April & 22 May. 10-11.30am
Join a tour of the beautiful Avebury Manor Garden with Head Gardener Garry to learn about seasonal highlights, a varied history, and exciting new developments in the historic garden rooms.
Price: £10 per person. Booking required.
Guided landscape walk: Waden Hill circuit
7 May. 1.30-4pm
The Waden Hill circuit takes in some of the Neolithic monuments which make up this ancient and intriguing landscape. The volunteer guide will help you to unlock their past by explaining the history of the landscape as you walk. They are around 3-4 miles. They include a steep incline and muddy or uneven ground, but no stiles.
Price: £8pp. Booking required.
'Drawing Closer': art walk with Tamsin Loveday
18 May. 10.30am-12.30pm
On this walk, you will be encouraged to pause, to be present and use to your senses to explore Avebury in a new way. You will have the opportunity to learn more about the site and use experimental drawing techniques to capture your experience. For example, close your eyes and draw what you hear using touch and coloured pastels.
Price: £25pp. Booking required.
Dyrham Park
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/bath-bristol/dyrham-park
Nature tots at Old Lodge
Every Tuesday in term time. 10.45-11.45am
The popular session for pre-schoolers is back with nature activities for youngsters in the parkland.
Price: Free (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Easter egg hunt at Dyrham Park
5-21 April. 10am-5pm
The Easter trail will take place around the parkland and includes 10 activity stations including games, challenges, and activities.
Price: £3.50 per trail (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Tulip mania at Dyrham Park
22 April – 5 May. 10am-5pm
Immerse yourself in a world of tulips this season as we celebrate the springtime favourite which has strong links with the history of Dyrham Park. There will be talks, walks, and a plant fayre, as well as specialist guided walks.
Price: Free (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
May half-term fun at Dyrham Park
24 May - 1 June. 10am-5pm
Get active in the great outdoors with some garden games this half term at Dyrham Park.
Price: Free (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Lacock
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wiltshire/lacock
Easter trail at Lacock
5 – 28 April
Have an Easter adventure around the gardens with 10 different activities to discover. Hop, skip and jump your way around them all to claim your chocolate egg.
Price: £3.50 per trail (normal admission applies). Booking not needed.
Illyria presents the Wind in the Willows
30 May. 6.30-8.10pm
Multiple award-winning Illyria celebrates Kenneth Grahame’s timeless tale of friendship, laughter, the longing for home and the lure of adventure.
Price: See website for pricings. Booking required.
Werner Bischoff Exhibition, in collaboration with Magnum
A photography exhibition in the Fox Talbot Museum. Opening weekend 24/25 May.
Price: Free (normal admission applies). No booking required.
Newark Park
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/gloucestershire-cotswolds/newark-park
Easter egg hunt at Newark Park
5 April – 27 April, 10am – 4.30pm
Make your way along the trail and find activities for the whole family. The Easter trail contains 10 activity stations around the garden including a rabbit racecourse, bird watching, games, and much more.
Price: £3.50 per trail (normal admission applies). No booking required
Wild garlic foraging at Newark Park
1 April – 18 May. 10am-5pm
Pick up a leaflet from visitor reception on arrival which will show you the best places to find wild garlic, give you some top foraging tips as well as health and safety advice, and even some recipe ideas.
Price: Free event (normal admission apply). Booking not required.
May half term at Newark Park
23 – 31 May. 10am-4.30pm
Learn all there is to know about Spike, Newark's dragon weather vane. Make your way in the garden looking for shields and through the house, pick up an animal spotter sheet to find all the creatures within the collections.
Price: Free event (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Prior Park
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/bath-bristol/prior-park-landscape-garden
Wild garlic foraging at Prior Park
5-27 April, 10am-5pm
Visitors will be welcome to forage for wild garlic at Prior Park. There will be bags to use, information cards for foraging tips and health and safety, and recipe cards to take home.
Price: Free (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Easter at Prior Park
17-21 April, 10am-5pm
10 Easter-themed stations await to be discovered on this Easter trail. Test your skills in the egg and spoon race, decorate an egg for your Easter tree, and be ready for laughs a-plenty in the very popular wheelbarrow race. Children will each get bunny ears and a chocolate egg (dietary alternatives available).
Price: £3.50 per trail (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Stourhead
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wiltshire/stourhead
Walks & talks guided tours
1-30 April, 1-31 May, 1-8 June. 11am-12.30pm & 1.30-3pm
Accompany one of Stourhead's knowledgeable volunteers on the original route taken by the Hoare family and their guests and learn the history of this fascinating place.
Price: Free (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Social Strolls
Every Thursday, April – June. 10am-12noon & 2-4pm
Meet new people and enjoy a gentle health and wellbeing walk in beautiful surroundings. Led by friendly volunteers on a fully accessible route. Enjoy the social atmosphere and make a connection with nature and each other.
Price: Free event (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Forage and cook walk
April – June, see website for dates. 10am-4pm
A foraging crash-course the covers everything from identification, to preparation and cooking of wild food held on Stourhead's beautiful wider estate.
Price: £70pp. Booking required.
Trust 10
27 April & 25 May. 8.30-11am
Stourhead’s Trust10 10k trail run is a challenging, multi-terrain run involving some public roads. Beginning and ending at Stourhead house, the trail takes in pasture, woodland and an Iron age hillfort with King Alfred’s Tower marking the mid-way point.
Price: Free event. Booking not required.
Wider estate walks
25 April & 30 May. 11am-1pm
Be led on lesser-known routes around Stourhead's wider estate and learn more about the archaeology and fascinating history of this storied landscape.
Price: Free (normal admissions apply). Booking required via website.
Easter Trail at Stourhead
1-21 April. 9am-3.30pm
Come to Stourhead for an egg-cellent Easter adventure this spring. Take part in the 10 exciting Easter-themed activities around the garden and collect your chocolate egg reward.
Price: £3.50 per trail (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Easter wreath workshop
15 & 16 April. 10am-12noon
Create your own spring wreath in time for Easter. Guided by a local florist, make a sustainable moss base and decorate with natural spring foliage, fresh flowers, living bulbs and Easter eggs.
Price: £75 per person (normal admission applies to visit the house and garden outside of workshop hours). Booking required via website.
Walled garden talks
Every Wednesday in May & June. 12noon-1pm
Take a detailed look at the function of this vital and often overlooked area of Stourhead with one of the knowledgeable volunteers. The talk is approximately 45mins-1hr.
Price: Free (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Maypole Dancing
3-5 May. 11am-2.30pm
Learn how to dance a traditional jig this may day weekend with our professional instructor, accompanied by a live musician. 30-minute, drop-in workshops begin at 11am, 12pm, 1pm and 2pm. You can also enjoy lawn games at the picnic hub in the top garden.
Price: Free event (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Botanical watercolour workshop
12 May. 10.30am-3.30pm
Relax and unwind in this seasonal watercolour workshop focusing on the flowers currently in bloom at Stourhead.
Price: £65 per person. Booking required.
Glory of the Garden
31 May. 6-9pm
A glorious anthology of poetry, prose and songs, delivered by five versatile professional performers, on the theme of gardens and the gardeners who tend them. From Gertrude Jekyll to Pam Ayres, from An English Country Garden to The Secret Garden, from the lyrical to limericks, this is a flowerbed full of delights. Join PlayGC Theatre Company on the lawns by the house for an evening of delights.
Price: See website for pricing. Booking required.
The Courts
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wiltshire/the-courts-garden
Guided Garden Tours with the Senior Gardener, Michael Brewer.
From March 3, and then monthly (alternate Mondays and Fridays) until October.
On an over one-hour tour, learn about the seasonal highlights and ongoing development of the garden, and how the garden has grown from an industrial site to the arts and crafts gem it is today.
Price: £10 per person (normal admission applies). Booking essential via website.
Tyntesfield
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/bath-bristol/tyntesfield
Easter Adventures at Tyntesfield
5 April to 27 April. 10am-4pm
Join Baarbara and Baarnaby lamb this Spring for an Easter Adventure. Follow the eggs on the trail map to find each of the ten activity stations and take part in the fun and games. The trail can be completed in any order, but don’t forget to collect your chocolate egg at the end.
Price: £3.50 per trail, which includes an Easter trail sheet, bunny ears and a chocolate egg.
Make your own Windsor Chair
5 April to 8 June. 10am-4pm
Learn to make your own Windsor Chair with the Somerset Bodgers. The event will take place over 6 days (3 weekends): 5/6 April, 3/4 May, 7/8 June. See website for further information.
Price: £395 per person. Booking required via website.
Make a plectrum table
19 & 20 April (two-day course). 10am-4pm
Learn to make a plectrum-shaped table with the Somerset Bodgers.
Price: £120 per person. Booking required via website.
Make a Celtic backstool
24 & 25 May (two-day course). 10am-4pm
Learn to make a Celtic backstool (three-legged chair) with the Somerset Bodgers.
Price: £130 per person. Booking required via website.
Bird by In Between Time
1 May to 29 June. 10am - 5pm
This spring, Tyntesfield will play host to Bird, a new immersive sound installation from In Between Time in collaboration with young people from Bristol and North Somerset, 'exploring human-induced biodiversity loss by creating a modern-day response to archival recordings of the now extinct Kaua’i’ō’ō bird as it calls out for a mate that will never come. Responding to ecological grief and habitat destruction, Bird creates a requiem for lost species, asking how we must respond to the climate crisis. With almost 4000 species worldwide facing critical endangerment, Bird mourns this loss while igniting hope for a future led by a new generation which values the rich ecology of our planet.’ - In Between Time
Price: Free (normal admissions apply). Booking not required.
Bathampton Meadows
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/bath-bristol/bathampton-meadows
Learn to make a garden obelisk on Bathampton Meadows
27 April. 10am-1pm
In this workshop, you will learn to make a rustic willow and hazel garden obelisk support for growing plants such as runner beans or sweat peas.
Price: Free event. Booking required.
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