Stourhead

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Overflowing with vistas, temples and follies, Stourhead is landscape gardening at its finest. The Palladian house has some fine Chippendale furniture and paintings by Claude and Gaspard Poussin, but it’s a sideshow to the magnificent 18th-century gardens (open 9am to 5pm), which spread out across the valley. Stourhead is off the B3092, 8 miles south of Frome.

A picturesque 2-mile garden circuit takes you past the most ornate follies, around the lake and to the Temple of Apollo; a 3.5-mile side trip can be made from near the Pantheon to King Alfred's Tower, a 50m-high folly with wonderful views.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • Steam rising off the hot mineral water in the Great Bath, part of the Roman Baths in Bath, UK

    Roman Baths

    19.2 MILES

    Welcome to one of Northern Europe's most significant Roman sites. Today more than a million visitors a year come to see its historic finds, atmospheric…

  • December 28, 2014: Interior of Salisbury Cathedral.

    Salisbury Cathedral

    22.84 MILES

    England is endowed with countless stunning churches, but few can hold a candle to the grandeur and sheer spectacle of 13th-century Salisbury Cathedral…

  • Glastonbury Tor Sunrise

    Glastonbury Tor

    16.78 MILES

    Topped by the ruined medieval Chapel of St Michael, the iconic hump of Glastonbury Tor is visible for miles around, and provides Somerset with one of its…

  • Magna Carta in Salisbury Cathedral, England. It is a charter agreed by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. It influenced the early American colonists in the Thirteen Colonies and the formation of the American Constitution in 1789, which became the supreme law of the land in the new republic of the United States.

    Magna Carta

    22.85 MILES

    Magna Carta on display in Salisbury Cathedral's Chapter House is one of only four surviving original copies. A historic agreement made in 1215 between…

  • Blue skies over Stonehenge historic site

    Stonehenge

    22 MILES

    An ultramodern makeover at ancient Stonehenge has brought an impressive visitor centre and the closure of an intrusive road (now restored to grassland)…

  • bow of the SS Great Britain in Bristol harbour, UK; Shutterstock ID 81738850; Your name (First / Last): James Smart; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: LP.com destination image for Akureyri

    Brunel's SS Great Britain

    26.93 MILES

    This mighty, innovative steamship was designed by engineering genius Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1843. You get to wander the galley, surgeon's quarters and…

  • KINGSTON LACY, UK - SEPTEMBER 29, 2012: A view toward the country house at Kingston Lacy with landscaped gardens in Summer; Shutterstock ID 1033498075; your: Bridget Brown; gl: 65050; netsuite: Online Editorial; full: POI Image Update

    Kingston Lacy

    23.85 MILES

    Dorset's must-see stately home looks every inch the setting for a period drama. It overflows with rich decor, most famously in the Spanish Room, which is…

  • The view from No 1 Royal Crescent

    No 1 Royal Crescent

    19.6 MILES

    For a glimpse into the splendour and razzle-dazzle of Georgian life, head for the beautifully restored house at No 1 Royal Crescent, given to the city by…

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Nearby Wiltshire attractions

1. King Alfred's Tower

2.57 MILES

A 50m-high folly with wonderful views. It's part of the National Trust property Stourhead, some 8 miles south of Frome.

2. Longleat

5.99 MILES

Half ancestral mansion, half wildlife park, Longleat was transformed into Britain's first safari park in 1966, turning Capability Brown's landscaped…

3. Shaftesbury Abbey

8.64 MILES

These hilltop ruins mark the site of what was England's largest and richest nunnery. It was founded in 888 by King Alfred the Great, and his daughter,…

4. Gold Hill

8.66 MILES

The often-photographed, painfully steep, quaint cobbled slope, lined by chocolate-box cottages, that starred in a famous TV advert for Hovis bread.

5. Old Wardour Castle

11.05 MILES

Six-sided Old Wardour Castle was built around 1393 and suffered severe damage during the English Civil War, leaving these imposing remains. The views from…

6. Haynes Motor Museum

11.4 MILES

The 400-strong collection at this car museum includes an array of outstanding and outlandish motors, from Aston Martins and Ferraris to oddities such as…

7. Sherborne Old Castle

13.4 MILES

These days the epitome of a picturesque ruin, Sherborne's Old Castle was built by Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, in 1120 – Elizabeth I gave it to her one…

8. Sherborne New Castle

13.83 MILES

Sir Walter Raleigh began building the impressive Sherborne New Castle in 1594, but only got as far as the central block before being imprisoned by James I…