The great entrance hall of Lowther Castle, photographed before the first world war. Take a virtual step inside the front door to see inside now.
"The transformation of the historic castle and gardens at Lowther in the Lake District National Park is well underway and the gardens and grounds are now open Monday to Sunday 10.00am to 5.00pm. Join us on Facebook for news and chat." Andrew Mercer, Commercial Director
The ruined castle and gardens at Lowther stand on a limestone escarpment at the Northern edge of the Lake District National Park, three miles from the M6, junction 40. The 130 acre, Grade II* listed site contains the remnants of at least three significant buildings and an abandoned garden - one of England's greatest gardens, once famous, but unseen for 70 years.
For the first visitors, there'll be limited facilities but the opportunity to discover a garden that few have seen, and to see the conservation craftsmen and women at work on the castle and in the gardens. The huge two-storey stable courtyard will take a year to convert into a visitor centre, the castle and a gallery will take three years and the gardens 20 to 25 years. It's one of the largest such projects in Britain.
Read more about the plans.
Read interviews about the plans with architect Geoff Rich and about a first impression of the gardens with landscape designer Dominic Cole.
'Don't go to Lowther if you are looking for herbaceous borders or flowery rose gardens - there aren't any. Lowther is a truly lost garden, of which only traces remain in the ghostly remnants of follies and temples, flights of grand stone steps that now lead to and from nowhere, and stone-built features transformed into peculiar creatures through the accretion of years of moss. At its heart, the magnificent ruined castle must surely be one of the finest wrecks in Britain.' (Matthew Wilson, presenter of Channel 4's The Landscape Man, and former Trustee of the Lowther Castle and Gardens Trust, in My Favourite Gardens, Guardian, 13 May 2010)
