The Alnwick Garden

The site on which The Alnwick Garden is built has had a colourful history, with former Dukes of Northumberland creating gardens for Alnwick Castle, with the leading designers of their day. However, by the time The Alnwick Garden project began, the previous gardens were long gone and the site was overgrown and neglected.

The first garden was laid down in 1750 by the 1st Duke of Northumberland, who employed Capability Brown, the most celebrated landscape gardener of the day, to landscape the parkland adjoining Alnwick Castle. Visitors to The Treehouse at The Alnwick Garden experience a fantastic view across the Capability Brown landscape.

The 3rd Duke was a plant collector, and led a century of development at Alnwick. He brought seeds from over the world, and pineapples were raised in hothouses. The gardens attracted an international reputation, and Alnwick’s head gardener was headhunted by Tsar Alexander 1st of Russia.

In the middle of the 19th century, the 4th Duke created an Italianate garden, featuring the Venetian wrought iron gates that have been restored to their original position at the entrance to the Ornamental Garden. There was also a large conservatory, where The Alnwick Garden’s Pavilion is now found. By the end of the century, the Duke’s gardens were at their grandest with yew topiary, avenues of limes and acres of flowers.

During World War II’s Dig For Victory campaign, the garden was turned over and provided food, and soon after, the austerity of the 20th century saw the garden fall into disrepair. It was closed as a working garden in 1950.

Jane Percy, the current and 12th Duchess of Northumberland, discovered the garden in 1997, full of brambles and broken brickwork and stones. It had become a nursery for larch and spruce trees. She immediately felt its magic, and as a keen gardener, she appreciated its bones. She felt as if it was waiting to be brought back to life, and imagined a huge public garden filled with people.

The Duke of Northumberland donated the site to The Alnwick Garden Trust, the charity that would come to own The Alnwick Garden, with the Duchess as trustee volunteering her time to drive the project forward.

As The Garden’s creative visionary, The Duchess leads the design team, and selected the world-renowned Belgian landscape designer Jacques Wirtz and his son Peter to create The Alnwick Garden. Their design is a fascinating combination of quiet and busy spaces and diverse themes, brought together by repeating strong green structural shapes.