The parkland at Berrington Hall

Swans on the lake — Swans live on the 'Capability' Brown designed lake | © NT

Lancelot 'Capability' Brown was the most important landscape architect of the 18th century, designing around 170 parks throughout the country. Berrington was the culmination of his life's work, so on your visit to the parkland, you’ll experience his vision through the views, water features and trails through the acres of countryside.

Work along one side of Berrington Pool

Ongoing work is taking place along the wooded edge of Berrington Pool starting from Monday 30 September 2024. This means that edge of the pool will be closed to visitors until the work is complete and for a period of time afterwards to allow new grass to grow. Visitors can continue to enjoy walking along the other sides of Berrington Pool. This will impact some of the waymarked walk routes. There will be signage in place to indicate closed areas and alternative routes.

Walking at Berrington

Explore every corner of the estate with notes explaining Brown's original vision along the way. Choose from the lakeside walk or parkland walk, or even a mixture of the two and take in the scenery, sights and sounds of the Herefordshire countryside. There's also have a family friendly den building trail.

Please be aware that the Berrington estate falls under a historic tenancy to the Cawley family who graze their livestock here.

Berrington parkland walk - purple trail

Stroll out into the parkland at Berrington and enjoy all that this 'Capability' Brown-designed masterpiece has to offer, with this walk taking you into all of the estate's nooks and crannies.

Parkland walk

Berrington lake walk - red trail

Enjoy a gentle stroll down to and around the lake on largely level terrain, taking in the sights, sounds and scenery of Berrington's parkland along the way.

Lake walk

Berrington den building walk - yellow trail

This route takes you through Berrington's parkland straight to the woodland den building area. An easy walk offering the opportunity to construct your own makeshift shelter along the way – perfect for young budding builders.

Den building walk

Overview Map

An overview map showing the two main walks is available.

Overview map

a heron in flight with its wings spread out — Berrington's pool is home to one of the largest heronries in the West Midlands | © A R TERRY ARPS

A major project

Brown was appointed by Thomas Harley in the 1770s to lay out a park and make the most of the spectacular Herefordshire views west towards Wales and the Black Mountains.

Brown's classic device of divided views can clearly be seen from the steps of the house; to the north-west to the hill of Croft Ambrey, to the west into Wales and finally to the south-west where he built a 14-acre lake complete with island.

Haven for wildlife

The lake is now a haven for wildlife including many breeds of waterfowl, fish and insects. In addition, the lake is a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of the herons which nest on the island during spring each year.

Otters

More secretive than usual visitors, these shy creatures have made Berrington their home. They have been captured by our 'otter cam', usually being caught at night.

Otters breed throughout the year and having young makes these normally nocturnal, shy and elusive creatures more visible. No young otters have been spotted recently.