Introduction
For more than 400 years, the magnificent Elizabethan Garden at Kenilworth Castle has been lost to the world. From May 2009, you can once again experience its full glory.
Originally created for Queen Elizabeth I by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester at a time when he still hoped to marry her, this was a garden designed to seduce and beguile its visitors.
Now, using advances in garden archaeology, along with the survival of an extraordinary eye-witness description from 1575, visitors are able to experience the sights, sounds and scents that would have greeted Queen Elizabeth I when she first walked its paths, as she made her progress around England.
Magnificent carved arbours; a bejewelled aviary; planting abundant in colour, perfume and fruits and an 18-foot-high fountain carved from dazzling Carrara marble are just some of the glories that make Kenilworth Castle’s new addition the most complete picture of an Elizabethan garden anywhere in the world.
The re-creation of the garden marks the end of a £3 million investment project including the refurbishment of Leicester’s gatehouse and stables, meaning there is now more than ever to see and do as you step back in time at Kenilworth Castle.
