Stourhead House & Gardens

Some gardens are pleasant. Stourhead is transcendent. When Henry Hoare II set out to create a ‘living work of art’ in the 1740s, he succeeded so spectacularly that his lakeside landscape has inspired garden designers for nearly three centuries.

The estate sprawls across 1,000 hectares. At its heart sits the elegant Palladian mansion, but the gardens are why discerning travellers make pilgrimages here. Henry Hoare II spent nearly 40 years perfecting his vision—a carefully choreographed landscape where classical temples, grottoes, and a Gothic spire emerge at precisely calculated moments as you circle the serpentine lake.