Herstmonceux Castle, Gardens and Grounds

What a great few hours spent just wandering around. Beautiful gardens, very well tended and wonderful wild areas. Take your time or you will miss those small areas hidden from view.
Tea shop for a welcoming coffee was needed after those hours, we must have walked miles.
Make the effort to get there, you won’t be disappointed.
As stated by a previous reviewer. The postcode, if used in your SatNav, takes you to the wrong entrance. Use Wartling Road which takes you to the Main Entrance and parking. Well signposted from there.

Awesome castle and grounds. Could happily spend hours and hours here. Also, as my current condition makes it difficult to get about, it is flat enough to make travelling on crutches relatively easy. :-)
While the tea shop is not cheap, it is not as expensive as other places that I have been to and it is nice to come out for a picnic in the grounds. Also as a nature lover I got lots of photographs of the animals and plants in the gardens.
So, in short, come and join in the fun here. There is something for everyone.

For those who like a classic castle, surrounded by a moat and beautiful gardens then this is must. Depending on the time of year, the gardens have a range of different plants and flowers on show. My suggestion would be to aim for early Spring or late Summer to see the biggest range of colour.
With woodland walks around the grounds it is a great place to explore for all ages. You can relax with a book on one of the many seats, benches or tree stumps to wind away the hours.
A simple tea room is available to get some drinks and snacks. The castle is not included in the grounds ticket price but guided tours are available for a small additional charge at fixed times during the day.
If you do not own a hire, then I would suggest hiring one to get to the grounds a it’s not the most accessible place using public transport.
For those who love science, the Herstmonceux Observatory is next door and you can by a ticket that also includes entry to it. Well worth checking out their website for astronomy events.

Don’t use the post code in yr sat nav as that brings you to the wrong gate try grid reference (
) TQ64511046 (
) else Halley Road Wartley. Lovely building but not usually open to visitors (Although it was the day we visited but it there was an extra £2.50 charge so we didn’t bother. By contrast, the Science Centre includes tours of the observatories in the entrance charge).
Overall my ‘senior’ aunt and I were disappointed as it is expensive (£12.50/£10 for tickets for both the castle grounds and the Observatory Science Centre) and the gardens/​plants were merely nice rather than fab.
The woodland trail was well sign posted but not all the plants in the gardens were labelled. The folly was suitably dilapidated but the cottage style garden less than lush.
The herb garden was rather mingy and the labels hard to read. The rose garden was in full bloom and clearly labelled but in need of weeding. We saw at least six varieties of butterflies in the butterfly garden which is better than average these days but quite sad as the buddleia should be heaving with them (not Hermonceux’s fault at all). There were two unusual multi headed buddleia’s which we would have like to buy but they weren’t included in the small selection of plants for sale
It was lovely to sit under huge ancient chestnuts for a bite to eat but the area needed a sweep and the tea was cold before the second cup as there was no cosy on the pot. The side salad was a bit tired too.
See separate review re the Observatory Science Centre