Gardens and Green Spaces to Explore in Mid Devon

There’s a particular pleasure in visiting a garden that someone actually loves. Not a municipal planting scheme or a corporate courtyard, but a place where someone has spent years, sometimes generations, building something beautiful. Mid Devon has them in abundance. From the grand landscaped grounds of National Trust estates to intimate private gardens thrown open for a single Sunday afternoon each year, the district rewards anyone who’s prepared to slow down and look properly.

Here’s a guide to some of the best green spaces to visit this spring and summer.

The Big Estates

Knightshayes, Tiverton

Knightshayes is the place to come if you want to understand what Victorian ambition looks like when it’s been left largely to its own devices for a century or so. The garden was created by the Heathcoat Amory family from the 1870s onwards, and what survives is a fascinating combination of formal Victorian terraces, a walled garden, and a woodland garden that gradually loosens into something wilder and more idiosyncratic as you head uphill. In late spring the rhododendrons and azaleas are exceptional; later in the summer the formal terraces and rose garden come into their own. There’s also a kitchen garden that’s been returned to productive use, a good café, and the extraordinary Gothic Revival house, designed by William Burges, completed by someone rather more lowkey, to explore.

National Trust admission applies; free to members. The gardens are open daily throughout the year.

Killerton, near Broadclyst

Killerton‘s gardens cover eighteen acres on the slopes of an ancient volcanic hill, and they’ve been open to the public since the Acland family gave the estate to the National Trust in 1944, making them one of the most visited gardens in the South West. The planting is particularly strong on spring-flowering trees and shrubs: magnolias, cherries, rhododendrons, and some genuinely rare specimens that benefit from the estate’s mild, sheltered microclimate. Later in the year the walled garden and summer borders take over, and in autumn the colour on the hillside is spectacular.

It’s also a good estate for walking, the parkland extends well beyond the formal gardens, with paths through ancient woodland and across open fields. The house is worth visiting too, with a nationally important costume collection and regular temporary exhibitions.

A short drive from the M5 at Junction 28. National Trust admission applies; free to members. Open daily.

Bridwell Park Estate, Uffculme

Bridwell is one of those places that feels like a genuine discovery, even though it’s been quietly sitting on the edge of Uffculme for the best part of 250 years. The Grade I listed Georgian house sits at the heart of around 33 acres of parkland, woodland and ornamental lake, with the Orangery Café serving coffee, lunch, cream teas, cakes and local produce in a setting that manages to be both elegant and completely relaxed.

The parkland is the draw here: wander through it and you’re likely to encounter free-roaming deer, geese, swans and ducks going about their business with complete indifference to the visitors. It’s a beautiful, unhurried place, dogs on leads very welcome, and the kind of afternoon out that’s hard to put a price on.

Check the Bridwell website and social media for the latest on admission and any event closures before visiting, as the estate also hosts weddings and private events throughout the year.

Bridwell is easily combined with a visit to Coldharbour Mill, also in Uffculme for a full day out in the Culm Valley.

Historic Houses with Gardens

Fursdon House, near Thorverton

The Fursdon family have lived on this estate since 1259, which gives the place a particular kind of settled, un-self-conscious atmosphere that’s surprisingly rare. The gardens are lovely in spring and early summer, informally planted, with a series of garden rooms and a walled kitchen garden, and the Coach House tea room is very good. The house itself is open for guided tours on Bank Holidays and Wednesday and Thursday afternoons (2:30 and 3:30pm), and the informality of the tours reflects the fact that this is, genuinely, someone’s home rather than a managed heritage experience.

On Bank Holiday Monday 25th May, Fursdon is hosting a Meadows Day, a chance to stroll through their traditional hay meadows and spot marsh orchids and other meadow flowers at their peak. Open 2–5pm. A genuinely lovely thing to do on a Bank Holiday afternoon, and the kind of experience that’s surprisingly hard to find.

Open Bank Holidays and Wednesday–Thursday afternoons, 2–5pm, from Easter through to late summer. Check their website for the current season’s dates.

Tiverton Castle

The earliest recorded garden in Devon was right here, the Earl of Devon had an apple garden at Tiverton Castle in the 1400s, which gives the place a reasonable claim to being one of the county’s longest-established growing spaces. The orchard still exists today, now planted with old varieties of fruit trees, and sits within three acres of walled gardens that have been replanted and landscaped over recent years.

It’s a surprisingly varied three acres: a spring bulb border with colourful and unusual varieties, a pergola with scented and rampant climbers, a brightly coloured summer border round the house with some rare shrubs and bedding plants, a working kitchen garden, and a woodland area with mature trees leading down to the River Exe. Mainly level, with some paths and steps down to the river.

You can visit the garden on its own for £3, or combine it with the castle interior (adults £10, children 7–16 £5): Sundays, Thursdays and Bank Holiday Mondays, 2:30–5:30pm, from Easter through to late September.

Bickleigh Castle

Bickleigh Castle sits beside the River Exe a few miles south of Tiverton, and its gardens and grounds are open every Thursday from 2nd April to 29th October. It’s a genuinely ancient place, history dating to the Norman period, connections to the Plantagenets, the Tudors, and a Civil War story or two, and the Thursday opening format, with cream teas served from noon followed by a guided tour at 2:30pm with the resident historian, makes for a very particular kind of afternoon.

The garden walk itself takes you around the grounds and the ornamental moat, with views across to the Exe Valley. Guided tours are bookable in advance and recommended; garden walk prices from £4 per adult, full guided tour £9 adult/£5 child.

NGS: Private Gardens Open for Charity

The National Garden Scheme has been opening private gardens to the public since 1927, raising money for nursing and health charities through admission fees and, crucially, tea and cake. Devon has 124 gardens listed in 2026, ranging from grand country houses to lovingly tended back gardens, and several of the best are right here in Mid Devon.

The format is wonderfully straightforward: turn up on an open day, pay at the gate (children are free at the majority of gardens), explore at your leisure, and have a cream tea. Here are the ones worth planning your summer around.

Chevithorne Barton, near Tiverton

This is a remarkable garden, and one that doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves. Chevithorne Barton has been in the Heathcoat Amory family since 1911, the same family behind Knightshayes, which is a short drive away, and the garden was the life’s work of May Heathcoat Amory, who created it largely alone after losing her husband in the First World War and all three of her sons in the Second. What she built, and what subsequent generations have developed, is a plantswoman’s paradise: woodland walks, grass paths through bluebells and meadows, a walled garden, herbaceous borders, and a collection of magnolias, camellias and rhododendrons that is exceptional in spring.

The garden is also home to the largest and most comprehensive oak collection in the UK, over 440 named Quercus, a National Collection begun by May’s grandson Michael. It’s a place with extraordinary depth if you want it, and perfectly enjoyable if you just want a lovely walk and a cream tea.

2026 NGS open dates: 29th March, 3rd May, 31st May and 25th October, 1pm–5pm. Admission £6, children free. Cream teas available. Pre-booking available via the NGS website.

Kia-Ora Farm & Gardens, Cullompton

Nearly ten acres of extensively planted gardens set in beautiful countryside on the edge of Cullompton, developed over many years by one woman from an abandoned space into something genuinely spectacular. There are vast sweeping lawns, large lakes and ponds, a bog garden, a waterwheel, a mill, and borders packed with rhododendrons, azaleas, heathers, roses and mature trees. There’s also novelty crazy golf, which is either a surprise or exactly what you were hoping for, depending on your outlook.

Cream teas and homemade cakes are served on open days, and the whole thing has the feel of a personal passion project that visitors happen to be invited into, which is exactly what it is.

2026 NGS open dates: Sundays from 19th April, running through to late September, 2–5:30pm. Admission £4, children free. Check the NGS website for the full list of dates.

Ashley Court, Tiverton

A small Regency house hidden on the edge of Tiverton, with a garden currently being lovingly restored by its owners. The walled kitchen garden is historically fascinating, and there’s an apple loft, stable buildings, and a woodland walk to explore, the whole thing has the feel of a place being carefully unpicked and put back together, which is oddly compelling.

Delicious cakes on offer, along with produce from the kitchen garden.

2026 NGS open date: 10th June, with pre-booking available via the NGS website. Admission and children’s entry details at the gate.

Kentisbeare House, near Cullompton

The gardens here surround the listed former Kentisbeare rectory and have been redesigned and planted to complement the surrounding countryside. There are formal beds, a lake walk, a kitchen garden with glasshouse, a wildflower meadow, and an orchard, the kind of varied, layered garden that rewards a long wander. Refreshments available on open days in aid of Churches Housing Action Team and the NGS.

2026 NGS open dates: Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th June, times to be confirmed on the NGS website.

Plan Your Visits

The NGS website is the best place to check open days, book tickets in advance where available, and find any additional gardens opening near you. Most open days are walkable from a village car park, and several of the gardens above are within easy reach of each other for a day that combines two or three visits.