AUTUMN: Bespoke garden tour in Dorset and around
A tour of the finest gardens of Dorset and Somerset
4 day itinerary for five guests in September 2025
A benign climate, breathtaking scenery and fertile soil make west Dorset and neighbouring Somerset home to some of England’s most wonderful gardens – and their gardeners. On this Autumn tour, with the West of England at its finest late Summer flush, we embrace the parks and grounds of some of the region’s greatest grand houses and offer exclusive access to its very best private gardens. But as well as formal gardens, you will also experience the wild landscapes of ancient woodlands and beachside cliffs.
We will be staying at Rushay, an Edwardian country house near the sea, to enjoy delicious meals, country walks, proper teas and roaring fires. In many ways, this is the best of all seasons in the West Country, as the gardens reveal their form, often blazing with colour. The skies are changeable, and the scents of leafmould and woodsmoke permeate the air.
Day One
Collection from Axminster Station, with a fifteen minute drive to arrive at Rushay in time for tea.
We have time to unwind and enjoy the garden over drinks, before dinner is served.
Simon Tiffin and Jason Goodwin will meanwhile set the scene with an introductory talk on the history and gardens of west Dorset.
Day Two
This morning we visit Farrs, the Beaminster home of the furniture maker John Makepeace and his wife Jenny, to explore two strikingly different but equally enchanting gardens.
John has created a landscape of order and precision, featuring clipped monumental topiary and precisely planted grass borders, particularly impressive in Autumn. Yet pass through a door into the internal walled garden, and you enter Jenny’s world – a carefully curated, colourful chaos, and a true plants woman’s paradise.
We will go on to nearby Stoke Abbott, one of the most magical and secluded villages in Dorset. We’ll see the charming gardens at Manor Farm, Simon Tiffin’s own home, and picnic undercover by the splendid ancient orchard.
James Crowden, the poet and author of Cider Country: How an Ancient Craft Became a Way of Life will join us by the old press in the cider barn to talk all things cidery. He reveals how D-Day ruined a Dorset cider maker’s plans, and can explain the unexpectedly English origins of champagne.
We return to Rushay for a delicious supper.
Day Three
Home to the Earl and Countess of Sandwich, Mapperton has been described as the nation’s finest manor house and its grounds are equally remarkable. The gardens feature stunning topiary, a magnificent orangery and a recently restored eighteenth century swimming pool. The planting in the borders is varied and elegant and the arboretum features a stunning collection of trees and shrubs. A talk on the history of Mapperton gardens will be given by the Countess of Sandwich.
Lunch is at the award-winning restaurant, Brassica.
We explore Hooke Park, a magnificent ancient woodland that is home the Architectural Association’s ‘woodland’ campus. Our walk through the woods will be led by Dorset native Nick Phillips, an experienced (and entertaining!) mushroom collector.
Nick will introduce us to the edible and non-edible species that erupt at this time of year from the wood-wide-web. Nick has a special connection to the land here, living nearby and knowing the fields and woodlands like the back of his hand.
We’ll visit Lyme Regis, with its famous Cobb wall protecting the harbour, before coming home to Rushay for drinks and supper.
Day Four
Our destination is another of the outstanding and rarely visited private gardens of Dorset: the Old Rectory at Litton Cheney. This four-acre hillside plot features a formal garden with a pleached crab tree border designed by Arne Maynard, over 350 rose bushes, a magnificent natural swimming pond, and a walled garden with a more relaxed style of planting.
We will have lunch at Lilac, an award-winning restaurant in Lyme Regis.
Return to London from Axminster
