Walk into the gardens of Mount Stewart and the first surprise is the palm trees — eucalyptus, tree ferns and flowers from the far side of the world, all somehow thriving on the shore of a County Down lough. Edith, Lady Londonderry dreamed them up in the 1920s as a chain of open-air rooms, and you drift from the Italian garden to the Spanish to the Sunken, past a terrace of grinning cement dodos she had cast to tease her London dinner guests. It is one of the finest gardens on Earth, and it wears it lightly.
A flat path slips down to the lake and loops the water through the Lily Wood — gentle enough for a buggy, with enough beyond it to make a whole afternoon of, if the woodland trails tempt you on. When the sun is out the lawns are made for a picnic; when the children need to run, an adventure playground is waiting.
Then the great house opens its doors. This was the Londonderrys' Irish home, and you wander rooms still hung with their portraits and full of their treasures — nothing roped off, nothing behind glass, a grand place that somehow still feels lived-in. Between the gardens, the lake and the house, there's a rich, full day in it — the kind you'll be glad you made the time for.
Plan your visit
Can I visit? Yes — and it couldn't be easier.
Walk in and pay at the gate — no booking needed. The gardens open 10am to 5pm in season (10am–4pm in winter), the house from 11am. Around £16 a grown-up, £8 a child, free for National Trust members. Clear the whole day for it.
Free parkingTea roomToilets & baby changeDogs on leadsBuggy-friendlyAdventure play
Worth knowing right now:
The Temple of the Winds is closed for storm-damage repairs, and the house lift is out of service. The gardens, house and lake walk are all open as normal.
Before you set off
What to wear & bring
👟Comfy shoes or welliesPaths are gravel and grass — fine in trainers, but soft underfoot after rain.
🧥A coat or a layerYou're on the lough. A breeze and a quick shower are never far away, even in summer.
👶An all-terrain buggyThe gravel suits chunky wheels. A small umbrella stroller will fight it — wheelchairs and scooters are there to hire.
🧺A picnic, maybeLawns to spread out on when it's dry, or the tea room when it's not.
What's on
Coming up while you're there
1JulSummer Series Gardener Walks
11JulPokémon joins the Summer of PlayFamily
1AugSummer Botanical Art Workshop with Ali Walker
Good to know
Everything before you go
Opening hours
Mid-March to early November: daily 10am–5pm (house from 11am, last entry 3:45pm). Winter: daily 10am–4pm (house Thursday–Sunday, last entry 3:15pm) and the formal lawns close.
Getting in
Adults around £16, children (5–17) around £8, under-5s free, family near £40. National Trust members free. No booking — pay at the gate. Confirm the rate on the day.
Food
The tea room's open 7 days. The home baking — scones, traybakes, the sausage rolls — is the reason to stop; hot lunches are wholesome and local (the soup's always gluten-free). Service can lag when it's mobbed, so if it's heaving, grab a scone and take it out to the lawn.
Toilets
Yes — including accessible toilets and baby-changing, near the visitor centre.
Dogs
On leads across the estate, with an off-lead exercise area for paying visitors and members. Welcome in the tea room's covered outdoor seating.
Parking
Free, two car parks about 100 yards from the door, with accessible spaces.
Getting around
Gravel and gently-graded paths, mostly step-free; an accessible loop round the lake. Some ground is uneven after rain. Wheelchairs and mobility scooters can be booked ahead.
How long
Most of a day. The gardens alone are a couple of hours; the lake and woodland walks add plenty more.
Questions
Before you go
What time does it close?
5pm in the main season (mid-March to early November), 4pm in winter. The house stops letting people in earlier — last entry's 3:45pm in season, 3:15pm in winter.
Is the food any good?
The baking is lovely — scones, traybakes and the well-known sausage rolls — and the hot lunches are wholesome and locally sourced. Service gets mixed reviews when it's busy, so if you want a sure thing, go for tea and a tray-bake rather than a big sit-down lunch.
Will it actually be warm — there's palm trees?
Ha — it's still Ireland. The lough keeps the frost off so the plants thrive, but you might well catch a shower or a breeze off the water. Bring a coat and you'll be grand. The gardens look gorgeous in soft rain anyway.
Can I bring a buggy?
Yes. The paths are gravel and gently graded, so an all-terrain buggy rolls easily; a small umbrella stroller will struggle a bit on the loose stone. The lake loop is the smoothest route.
Are there toilets and baby-changing?
Yes — toilets, accessible toilets and baby-changing, all near the visitor centre by the tea room.
Is it good for little ones?
Loads for them — adventure play, a flat buggy-friendly lake walk, and acres of lawn and woodland to run off the energy. All ages welcome.
Getting there
Portaferry Road, Newtownards, County Down, BT22 2AD — on the eastern shore of Strangford Lough, about 15 minutes south of Newtownards.
It started in 1744, when Alexander Stewart, a linen merchant, bought the land on the Ards Peninsula. His son Robert added the walled garden and commissioned the Temple of the Winds, finished around 1785.
The family went on to shape history. Robert Stewart — Viscount Castlereagh — helped carry the Acts of Union and, as Foreign Secretary, sat at the table that redrew Europe at the Congress of Vienna, before his death in 1822.
But the gardens you walk today are Edith, Lady Londonderry's doing, begun in the 1920s. She turned plain lawns into one of the most celebrated gardens in the world. Her daughter Lady Mairi handed the house to the National Trust in 1977, and it's been open to everyone since.
Today the gardens spread across some 80 acres of themed planting, set in a 950-acre estate of woodland, lake and shoreline demesne running down to Strangford Lough — one of the most important gardens in the National Trust's care, and regularly named among the finest in the world.