Wilton House — Attraction in Wilton

Incredible space for picnics with young children!

We visited Wilton House gardens over the jubilee bank holiday for a picnic and to let our kids burn off some excess energy.

At £21 (June 2022) for a family ticket (gardens) Wilton House isn't free, but was in our opinion well worth the price of admission. There's a lovely looking Café (not sampled) and some great ice cream from Marshfield Farm; but what was really excellent for us was the size and quality of the adventure playground!

Big in scale and with two slides that both our seven and nine year old said were 'epic' the playground has great climbing frames, zip lines, trampolines, swings, slides, swing boats, rope, and 'wobbly' bridges. There was also an area specifically for 1-5 years which was on a smaller scale but looked great.

Well tended extensive lawns dropping down to the river Wylie provided space for what seemed like an unlimited number of picnics and everything was clean and tidy. We saw scratch rounders, football, and cricket in progress and there were a few picnic tables and benches too.

The house looked lovely and provided a great backdrop but memories of being dragged around properties with my parents aged seven meant we didn't visit. It does coat considerably more too, but I'd have probably visited if our children were older or if we were visiting without them.

A large and well stocked gift shop provides the entry and exit, but the staff were lovely and the products on sale were not aimed at little ones, and seemed to be tasteful rather than disposable. In any event the staff here were friendly and really helpful.

A reasonable amount of parking too all on hard standing.

For a picnic though, Wilton House gardens really...

Stunning house and gardens, loads to explore and great for kids. Highlights are too many to describe in detail. Amazing art galleries, beautiful ornate carving, coving and cornicing throughout the house. Busts and sculptures galore, many on impressive plinths lining the grand hallways. Incredible old cedar trees, one 400 years old. An idyllic river walk with a stunning Palladian bridge, multiple linked ponds spanned by several small wooden foot bridges, I've never seen anything like it. The smell from the rose garden is pure delights, no map required to find it, just follow your nose. We were lucky enough to watch a heron take flight from the boathouse and fly over then into the woods. We were also treated to a classic and supercar show as well as a Cecil Beaton photography exhibition, both were superb, the photography inspiring and intrigueing. We all wanted to step into some of those scenes, picnics and parties. I could go on and on, the staff were all really helpful and enthusiastic about the house, gardens, family story and history of the place. They really want you to enjoy it all and make the most of the experience. The gift shop sells some of the best greetings cards I've ever seen, I bought 5 of them, once again, the staff are warm and friendly. We spent a whole day for Father's Day that flew by. We could've walked through the house again and not seen the same thing twice. If you love art, architecture and beautiful gardens, you really can't go wrong here. There is also a great cafe/ tea rooms and playground for the...

This would have been given 5 stars if it was not for one thing… the guide for the house tour, if you end up with Sue Eastham as your guide you are in for a treat but not in the way you hoped, it’s as if someone went to finishing school and did not finish, she was very condescending towards people almost belittling. This is less of a house tour and that of an art tour. We could hear other guides showing around and people were laughing and enjoying themselves but on our tour you could see people could not wait for it to be over. We was told it was a 30min tour and it lasted over an hour which was not great in the heat. When we raised this with her we was almost told off like being a naughty child just like the time we wanted to take a photo and was told we was holding the tour up… so we joined the front of the tour and was you guessed it told off for going to far in front of her… can you see what’s coming next we stood in the middle and was told to get out of the way as we was blocking her and everyone else’s view. I felt like a prisoner at the end, one of the group wanted to leave early (yes it was this bad) and you not what’s coming she was told off for wanting to do that. I came away early from here as a result of feeling unwelcome. Word of advice… read the room and the people around you when giving your tour! No one was even allowed time for questions as supposedly there was not enough time. It’s a shame that a pretentious tour guide ruined what was a rather warm and welcoming start to...