Grounds & Gardens

The splendour of Longleat House, nestling alongside a lake and set in glorious parkland, is a view not to be missed.

View of Longleat House from the Lunar Labyrinth

The principal contribution to the grounds was made by the 3rd Viscount of Weymouth (1734-1796) who employed ‘Capability’ Brown to create the park as it is seen today.

He was succeeded by the 2nd Marquess (1765-1837) who employed Humphrey Repton to reshape Half Mile Pond at Longleat so as to give it a more irregular appeal, with an island, which is now home to Longleat’s resident lowland gorilla, Nico.

It was the 6th Marquess of Bath (1905-1992), however, who initiated one of the most dramatic changes at Longleat, by introducing the first Safari Park outside of Africa, in 1966.

He also employed Russell Page to rearrange the gardens at Longleat and together they created the floral splendour of Longcombe Drive, including the planting of numerous azalea and rhododendron as the principal entry to the park.

The Love Labyrinth and Orangery

The 7th Marquess of Bath has initiated his own major changes to the grounds. He laid out the small Yin-Yang garden to the west of the House in 1964 and followed this with a series of mazes including the Longleat Hedge Maze (1975), the Love Labyrinth (1993), Sun Maze (1996) and Lunar Labyrinth (1996).

Nine sculpted granite standing stones, each measuring more than 5m in height, were erected alongside the ‘ring-shaped gateway’ at Heaven’s Gate to mark the millennium.