Helmsley Walled Garden

About us

Come and enjoy a day at Helmsley Walled Garden and stroll through beautiful displays of flowers, fruit and vegetables. Enjoy the Clematis Garden or take time out to sit in the Orchard or the Garden of Contemplation. Relax over lunch at the Vinehouse Café beneath Victorian vines laden with grapes, or browse for gifts, produce, plants and garden sundries in our Garden Shop and Plant Centre. The garden is fully accessible to wheelchairs and dogs are welcome on leads.

Dating back to 1759, Helmsley Walled Garden nestles at the bottom of the North York Moors between the Grade One listed landscape of Duncombe Park and the scheduled ancient monument of Helmsley Castle. The garden was a major employer during most of its history, but following the First World War, it was leased as a commercial enterprise and was run as such until 1984.

In 1984, it was abandoned and fell into dereliction. The restoration began in 1994 to restore the garden back to its original Victorian beauty and productivity. Local woman Alison Ticehurst wanted to create a beautiful garden for visitors to enjoy as well as provide horticultural therapy for local people in need. Today the aim of Helmsley Walled Garden is to conserve and restore the fabric of this historically important walled garden and to return it to full productivity using environmentally sustainable techniques. Gardens and gardening carry with them a wide range of therapeutic benefits for people and so the garden provides a horticultural therapy service to local people with a range of disabilities.

We work all year round to develop the garden, this year we are working on the Long Border and Cottage Garden, dividing, replanting and adding to the displays. In our Kitchen Garden we grow produce to be used in the café.. Our staff and volunteers are always happy to chat to visitors about what we are doing and the work of the garden in general. Named by The Times as one of the UK's prettiest gardens open to the public, this year it celebrates 22 years since its restoration began.

So enjoy a day out at Helmsley Walled Garden, open daily from April 1st to October 31st.

Garden

Helmsley Walled Garden also has a thriving Plant Centre. full of hundreds of hardy perennial plants along with a selection of shrubs and climbers. The Garden shop has a range of garden products such as compost and fertiliser