With the four-day bank holiday weekends of Easter and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in sight, Friday 1 April’s re-opening of Wiltshire’s Bowood House & Gardens will set the scene for some very special family days out across spring, summer and autumn 2022.
New attractions this year will include two jumping pillows (one for under 7s, the other for 7-12 year olds) adding to the thrills and spills of the Adventure Playground alongside the life-size Pirates’ Galleon, daredevil slides and aerial walkways. The ‘Scarlet Marquess’ exhibition in Bowood House’s Orangery will chronicle the life and times of the 2nd Marquess of Lansdowne (1765-1809), an intrepid traveller who is thought to have inspired ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ and was proclaimed a ‘best-bred man’ by King George III. On Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th August, Bowood’s ‘Capability’ Brown parkland will lend itself magically to outdoor theatre performances of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
Among popular large audience events returning to Bowood will be Giffords Circus (Thursday 28th April – Tuesday 3rd May) and the Classic Ibiza open-air concert (Friday 22nd & Saturday 23rd July). At the opposite end of the scale, the Crafty Gardeners’ series of seasonally-themed workshops (kicking off on Wednesday 6th April) and acclaimed garden photographer, Clive Nicholls’ masterclasses (Wednesdays 8th June & 26th October) will be back at the Bothy – the ideal studio base for such smaller-sized gatherings.
Private guided tours of the Lansdowne family’s private, four-acre Walled Garden will recommence from Wednesday 27th April (through to Friday 9th September) while Head Gardener Tours with David Glass are scheduled on four dates (Thursday 28th April, Friday 27th May, Thursday 23rd June & Thursday 21st July).
For more details on Bowood’s various attractions visit www.bowood.org and follow on social media: Twitter @BowoodHouse; Instagram @bowoodwiltshire and Facebook – Bowood House & Gardens