Levens Hall makes a claim that sounds like marketing and turns out to be true: these are the oldest topiary gardens in the world, laid out in the 1690s and still clipped into the same absurd shapes. For a child that reads as a garden full of giant green chess pieces, and the effect holds for longer than you would expect. It is five miles south of Kendal, right at the edge of the National Park.
The ticketing is sensibly split. Gardens only costs £13 for an adult and £4.75 for a child aged 5 to 16, with a family ticket at £32.35 covering two adults and up to three children. Add the Elizabethan house and it climbs to £17.30, £5.75 and £42.75. From 4 October some of the garden is closed off to protect the grass paths, the topiary stays open, and the gardens-only price drops to £9, £3 and £21.50.
Levens Kitchen and the gift shop sit outside the ticket line, so you can drop in for lunch without paying to get in. The kitchen opens at 9.30am, half an hour before anything else does.
Timings differ between the two halves of the site. Gardens run 10am to 5pm with last entry at 4pm, the house only 11am to 3.30pm with last entry at 3pm. Do the indoor bit first if you want both. The season is 27 March to 8 November 2026, seven days a week, and this is the first year it has stayed open right through October.
What it costs: House and gardens: adult £17.30, child £5.75, family £42.75. Gardens only: adult £13.00, child £4.75, family £32.35. From 4 October to 8 November some garden areas close and prices drop: house and gardens £15 adult, £5 child, £35.50 family; gardens only £9, £3 and £21.50. Child tickets cover ages 5 to 16 and the family ticket is two adults plus up to three children. Season tickets £35 single, £65 double, £70 family. Levens Kitchen and the gift shop need no ticket.
Hour-long candlelit tours of the house over the last four evenings of October half term, alongside a Halloween scavenger hunt in the topiary garden, creative workshops and a costume competition. Not for under-5s, and the tour ticket does not include daytime entry.
The Elizabethan house decorated with the fires lit, choirs and musicians in the Great Hall and the topiary garden in its winter shape. Father Christmas sits in the Old Nursery at weekends, booked, one child per slot, which makes it a proper conversation rather than a conveyor belt. At £3 a child and free for under 5s it is a cheap festive afternoon.
Seasonal: 27 Mar to 8 Nov 2026, seven days a week. Check before travelling.
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