Westonbirt Arboretum

Robert Holford began planting in 1829 on his estate, laying out rides through woodland rather than a formal park, and his son continued it; the collection now runs to roughly fifteen thousand labelled specimens of about two and a half thousand taxa across two sites, Old Arboretum and Silk Wood. It passed to the Forestry Commission in 1956 and has been run by Forestry England since 2019. The Acer Glade holds a large collection of Japanese maples that turns scarlet and orange for a few weeks in late October, and the arboretum's autumn colour is its main draw, with the site staying open into the evening for lit walks. A treetop walkway three hundred metres long runs at canopy height, and Silk Wood holds a lime coppice stool estimated at around two thousand years old, one of the oldest living things in Britain.

What's there

• The Acer Glade - Japanese maples in scarlet for a few weeks in late October.
• The treetop walkway - three hundred metres at canopy level.
• The ancient lime - a coppice stool in Silk Wood thought to be around two thousand years old.
• The Victorian rides - Holford's original sightlines through the collection.

When to go

Late October and early November for peak colour, which is the busiest period by a wide margin and needs pre-booked timed entry. Spring magnolias and rhododendrons are a quieter second season.

Practical notes

Autumn weekends are extremely busy and parking is managed with queues. Ticket prices rise in the colour season. Peak colour lasts about two weeks and moves with the weather, so timing is partly luck.

Nearby

Tetbury and Highgrove are close; Bath lies southwest and the Cotswolds north.

Key facts