Open Days
Every year we open a number of our buildings for Open Days to allow anyone to visit Landmarks and learn about their history and restoration. Admission is free on these days and leaflets are provided detailing the buildings' history.
For further information or directions please contact the Booking Office. The Booking Office is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm and Saturday from 10am to 4pm.
2012 Open Days
Auchinleck House, Ayrshire
Sunday 2 September
The Banqueting House, near Newcastle Upon Tyne
Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September
Clavell Tower, Dorset
Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September
Dolbelydr, Denbighshire
Friday 13 to Monday 16 April*
Friday 7 to Tuesday 11 September*
Fox Hall, West Sussex
To be confirmed
Freston Tower, Suffolk
Friday 20 to Sunday 22 April
Friday 7 to Tuesday 11 September*
The Gothic Temple, Buckinghamshire
Sunday 26 February+
Sunday 10 June+
Saturday 8 September+
The Grange, Kent
Friday 20 to Monday 23 April*
Friday 7 to Tuesday 11 September*
Keeper's Cottage, Bedfordshire
Friday 7 to Monday 10 September*
Morpeth Castle, Northumberland
Sunday 9 September
Peake's House, Essex
Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September
Princelet Street, London E1
Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 September
Queen Anne's Summerhouse, Bedfordshire
Saturday 23 to Monday 25 June*
Friday 7 to Monday 10 September*
The Ruin, North Yorkshire
Saturday 8 to Sunday 9 September
The White House, Shropshire
Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September
Wilmington Priory, East Sussex
Friday 11 to Monday 14 May*
Friday 7 to Tuesday 11 September*
* On the final open day the Landmark will only be open in the morning from 10am to 1pm.
+ Opening times 10.30am to 4pm (last admission to Stowe Gardens 4pm).
Please see below for further information.
The Gothic Temple
Stowe, Buckinghamshire
Sunday 26 February 10.30am to 4pm (last admission to Stowe Gardens is at 4pm)
 The Gothic Temple is a splendid, historic folly built in the gardens at Stowe in 1741. Inside the rooms are all circular with the main vault of the central space painted with heraldry and to be on the first floor gallery is an important architectural experience.
Please note that there is an admission charge by the National Trust to enter the gardens at Stowe in which The Gothic Temple stands.
National Trust ticket prices are as follows
Adult £7.50 Child £3.80 Family £18.80
National Trust Members Free
Group Bookings Welcome
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Dolbelydr
Trefnant, Denbighshire
Friday 13 to Sunday 15 April 10am to 4pm
Monday 16 April 10am to 1pm
 A fine example of a sixteenth-century gentry house, it also has good claim to be the birthplace of the modern Welsh language as it was at Dolbelydr that Henry Salesbury wrote his Grammatica Britannica - the first Welsh grammar.
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Freston Tower
Near Ipswich, Suffolk
Friday 20 to Sunday 22 April 10am to 4pm
 This Elizabethan six-storey tower overlooks the estuary of the River Orwell. The tower was built in 1578 by an Ipswich merchant called Thomas Gooding to demonstrate his wealth and status. It may also have acted as a lookout tower for Gooding's returning ships and doubled as a banqueting house, or simply as a folly.
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The Grange
Ramsgate, Kent
Friday 20 to Sunday 22 April 10am to 4pm
Monday 23 April 10am to 1pm
 The Grange was built by Augustus Pugin in 1845 and remained in the family until 1928. The building reflects Pugin's belief in the Gothic style as the only true Christian architecture and his ideal to live out his life in the Middle Ages. It was here Pugin produced some of his finest work, including designs for the House of Lords.
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Wilmington Priory
Wilmington, near Eastbourne, East Sussex
Friday 11 to Sunday 13 May 10am to 4pm
Monday 14 May 10am to 1pm
 Wilmington Priory, near Eastbourne, dates back to 1215. Alterations have taken place in almost every century since and the result is a complex puzzle to unravel; a medieval site with its fine vaulted entrance porch, stair turrets and mullioned window in the Great Chamber along with the comfort of the living rooms improved by the Georgians.
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The Gothic Temple
Stowe, Buckinghamshire
Sunday 10 June 10.30am to 4pm (last admission to Stowe Gardens is at 4pm)
The Gothic Temple is a splendid, historic folly built in the gardens at Stowe in 1741. Inside the rooms are all circular with the main vault of the central space painted with heraldry and to be on the first floor gallery is an important architectural experience.
Please note that there is an admission charge by the National Trust to enter the gardens at Stowe in which The Gothic Temple stands.
National Trust ticket prices are as follows
Adult £7.50 Child £3.80 Family £18.80
National Trust Members Free
Group Bookings Welcome
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Fox Hall
Charlton, West Sussex
To be confirmed
 Fox Hall built as a hunting lodge by the 2nd Duke of Richmond for the once famous Charlton Hunt, was a meeting place for the fashionable set of the eighteenth century. The Palladian simplicity of its brick exterior belies the exuberant decoration of the upstairs sitting room, and with the Duke's bed nestling in a gilded alcove, it makes an elegant bedsit.
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Queen Anne's Summerhouse
Old Warden, Bedfordshire
Saturday 23 to Sunday 24 June 10am to 4pm
Monday 25 June 10am to 1pm
 Queen Anne's Summerhouse is an early eighteenth-century brick-built folly located on the Shuttleworth Estate. The summerhouse boasts exceptionally fine rubbed brickwork and bears a date stone for 1878, added in the nineteenth century.
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Auchinleck House
Ochiltree, Ayrshire
Sunday 2 September 10am to 4pm
In association with Ayrshire Doors Open Days
 Auchinleck House was built between 1755 and 1760 by Alexander Boswell, 8th Laird of Auchinleck and the father of James Boswell, the celebrated diarist and biographer of Samuel Johnson. It is one of the finest examples of an eighteenth-century country villa to survive in Scotland.
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Dolbelydr
Trefnant, Denbighshire
Friday 7 to Monday 10 September 10am to 4pm
Tuesday 11 September 10am to 1pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
A fine example of a sixteenth-century gentry house, it also has good claim to be the birthplace of the modern Welsh language as it was at Dolbelydr that Henry Salesbury wrote his Grammatica Britannica - the first Welsh grammar.
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Freston Tower
Near Ipswich, Suffolk
Friday 7 to Monday 10 September 10am to 4pm
Tuesday 11 September 10am to 1pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
This Elizabethan six-storey tower overlooks the estuary of the River Orwell. The tower was built in 1578 by an Ipswich merchant called Thomas Gooding to demonstrate his wealth and status. It may also have acted as a lookout tower for Gooding's returning ships and doubled as a banqueting house, or simply as a folly.
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The Grange
Ramsgate, Kent
Friday 7 to Monday 10 September 10am to 4pm
Tuesday 11 September 10am to 1pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
The Grange was built by Augustus Pugin in 1845 and remained in the family until 1928. The building reflects Pugin's belief in the Gothic style as the only true Christian architecture and his ideal to live out his life in the Middle Ages. It was here Pugin produced some of his finest work, including designs for the House of Lords.
Back to top
Queen Anne's Summerhouse
Old Warden, Bedfordshire
Friday 7 to Sunday 9 September 10am to 4pm
Monday 10 September 10am to 1pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
Queen Anne's Summerhouse is an early eighteenth-century brick-built folly located on the Shuttleworth Estate. The summerhouse boasts exceptionally fine rubbed brickwork and bears a date stone for 1878, added in the nineteenth century.
Keeper's Cottage (also on the Shuttleworth Estate) will also be open to the public, from Friday 7 to Monday 11 September.
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Keeper's Cottage
Old Warden, Bedfordshire
Friday 7 to Sunday 9 September 10am to 4pm
Monday 10 September 10am to 1pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
 Keeper's Cottage is tucked away in the pinewoods and ferns at the foot of the warren on the Shuttleworth estate. It is a model gamekeeper's establishment as might have been found in a nineteenth-century pattern book, in the tradition of the orne but in a sturdily handsome way.
Queen Anne's Summerhouse (also on the Shuttleworth Estate) will also be open to the public, from Friday 7 to Monday 10 September.
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Wilmington Priory
Wilmington, near Eastbourne, East Sussex
Friday 7 to Monday 10 September 10am to 4pm
Tuesday 11 September 10am to 1pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
Wilmington Priory, near Eastbourne, dates back to 1215. Alterations have taken place in almost every century since and the result is a complex puzzle to unravel; a medieval site with its fine vaulted entrance porch, stair turrets and mullioned window in the Great Chamber along with the comfort of the living rooms improved by the Georgians.
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Peake's House
Colchester, Essex
Saturday 8 to Sunday 9 September 10am to 4pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
 Peake's House stands in the Dutch Quarter of Colchester, which has retained its old street plan. It was originally three cottages and, as Colchester was a centre for the cloth trade, they probably belonged to weavers, the long mullioned windows designed to give light to the men at their looms. It is a snug retreat from which you can explore the historic town around you.
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The Banqueting House
Gibside, Near Newcastle Upon Tyne
Saturday 8 to Sunday 9 September 10am to 4pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
 Built in 1746, this Gothic folly is part of the Gibside Estate which is now owned by the National Trust. It was designed by Daniel Garrett, a former assistant of Lord Burlington's, to stand in the highest part of the park, looking over the Derwent valley. The Banqueting House stands in a grassy clearing, looking down on an octagonal pool with views to the valley beyond.
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Clavell Tower
Kimmeridge, near Wareham, Dorset
Saturday 8 to Sunday 9 September 10am to 4pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
 It was built in 1830 by Reverend John Richards Clavell of Smedmore as an observatory and folly. Also known as the Tower of the Winds, it has a special place in literary history, with connections to Thomas Hardy and PD James. It was derelict from the 1930s and remained so up until 2007 when it was painstakingly rebuilt 25 metres inland by the Landmark Trust, safeguarding it from cliff erosion and further neglect.
Access to the tower is via a steep and sometimes slippery footpath, so stout footwear is essential.
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The Gothic Temple
Stowe, Buckinghamshire
Saturday 8 September 10.30am to 4pm (last admission to Stowe Gardens is at 4pm)
As part of Heritage Open Days
The Gothic Temple is a splendid, historic folly built in the gardens at Stowe in 1741. Inside the rooms are all circular with the main vault of the central space painted with heraldry and to be on the first floor gallery is an important architectural experience.
Please note that there is an admission charge by the National Trust to enter the gardens at Stowe in which The Gothic Temple stands.
National Trust ticket prices are as follows
Adult £7.50 Child £3.80 Family £18.80
National Trust Members Free
Group Bookings Welcome
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The Ruin
Hackfall, North Yorkshire
Saturday 8 to Sunday 9 September 10am to 4pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
 This little pavilion is dramatically perched above a steep wooded gorge, in the remnants of an outstanding mid eighteenth-century garden at Hackfall, conceived and created by the Aislabies.
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The White House
Aston Munslow, Shropshire
Saturday 8 to Sunday 9 September 10am to 4pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
 The White House dates back to the thirteenth century; the tops of the great cruck trusses of the original hall can be seen in the roof space. Below this are rooms of Tudor and Jacobean date, with wide uneven oak floorboards and a pleasing jumble of different windows. After a fire in 1780, a polite new drawing-room was added at one end, with a bedroom above.
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Morpeth Castle
Morpeth, Northumberland
Sunday 9 September 10am to 4pm
As part of Heritage Open Days
 Morpeth Castle is situated on a hill overlooking the River Wansbeck and Northumberland's capital. It was built in 1300, more for show than defence. Its builder, Lord Greystoke, wanted its presence felt, because it was to be used as a court-house.
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Princelet Street
Spitalfields, London E1
Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 September 10am to 4pm
 Princelet Street is typical of the speculative housing that sprang up in Spitalfields in the eighteenth-century for French silk weavers (Huguenots) and wealthy merchants. Today Princelet Street is a quiet street in an area of London that is bustling with cafes and markets including nearby Brick Lane.
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