Gardens > England > Warwickshire > Coombe Country Park

Coombe Country Park

A house (now a hotel), on the remains of a Cistercian Abbey, with park and garden. Lancelot Brown designed the parks landscape and lake whilst W A Nesfield designed the terrace garden. The lake and garden were restored by Paul Edwards, who wrote a book on English Garden Ornament. Work is currently underway to restore Brown's historic site lines and recreate the fantastic views of his serpentine lake. Coombe Country Park also has a fantastic wildflower meadow, which is open March to September every year.

Head Gardener's Comment

For a family day out, or a quiet little picnic, visit Coombe Country Park! It offers 500 acres of formal gardens, woodland, lakeside walks, and bird watching. The diverse "Capability" Brown designed landscape makes it ideal for everyone, from families to wildlife enthusiasts and those just looking for a quiet stroll in the woodland.

Coombe has won many awards for its quality and excellence in management, conservation, visitor experience and education including SSSI status for 40 years, Green Flag (parks and green spaces excellence award), VisitEngland's Visitor Attraction Quality Scheme and Natural England's Country Park accreditation. The most recent award is the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence 2015, for consistently high ratings in our customer reviews.

Photograph © Coombe Country Park

Photograph © Coombe Country Park

History

The origins of the park date back over 750 years when Cistercian monks began buying land to build their abbey. Over the years the estate has changed many hands and the once wooden abbey has been converted into the stone structure you can see today.

The estate has historical links with the infamous gunpowder plot, royalty and even Britain's most famous landscape architect Capability Brown. The abbey is currently used as an exclusive hotel but provides a striking scenic background to the beautiful formal gardens and arboretum. You can find out more about the parks history by visiting the history room in the Visitor Centre.