About
Levens Hall is one of the most distinctive heritage destinations in England, combining an accomplished Elizabethan house with a garden that has no equal in the world. The topiary garden, created in 1694 by Guillaume Beaumont — who had trained under André Le Nôtre at Versailles — is the oldest surviving topiary garden anywhere on earth, and its extraordinary shapes have been maintained continuously for over three hundred and thirty years without interruption.
The garden's topiary forms are unlike any other: where formal seventeenth-century gardens typically deployed clipped hedges in geometric patterns, Beaumont's work at Levens created fantastical, abstract shapes — great dark mushrooms, beehives, peacocks, chess pieces, spiralling pillars, and unclassifiable organic forms — that seem to belong as much to dream as to horticulture. Their sheer eccentricity is, paradoxically, historically authentic: they represent the original 1694 design, maintained with scrupulous continuity by generations of gardeners. No other surviving garden preserves a seventeenth-century topiary scheme in its original form.
The house itself, built around a medieval pele tower that survives at the core, is a fine Elizabethan structure with exceptionally well-preserved interiors. The great hall and parlour contain superb Jacobean panelling, the walls of certain rooms are hung with original Spanish leather — a luxury material of the seventeenth century — and the family portraits span several generations of the Bagot family who have lived at Levens since 1688. The collection also includes an unexpected feature: a significant assembly of working steam engines and model locomotives, reflecting the Victorian enthusiasm of a former owner.
Levens Hall has been in the care of the Bagot family since Josceline Percy sold it to his cousin Colonel James Graham in 1688 — who brought Beaumont from the royal household to lay out the garden. The family occupancy continues today, giving the house the particular warmth and authenticity that private-family heritage properties carry. The combination of ancient topiary, fine house, and continuity of family care makes Levens Hall genuinely irreplaceable.
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Plan Your Visit
💡 Visitor Tips
- The topiary is the absolute priority — allow plenty of time to walk through the parterre slowly and examine individual shapes up close. The scale and variety of the forms only becomes apparent at slow pace.
- Spring visits (April–May) combine the topiary with spectacular tulip and spring bedding displays in the parterres — arguably the most photogenic combination the garden offers.
- The house interior tour is genuinely excellent and should not be missed for the Spanish leather wall coverings alone — this is one of the rarest surviving domestic interiors in Cumbria.
- If visiting when the steam engines are running (selected summer Sundays and bank holidays — check website), allow an extra hour for the demonstrations in the stable yard. Unexpectedly compelling.
- Levens is private and therefore not covered by National Trust membership — budget accordingly. The ticket price is good value for what is offered.
- Combine with Sizergh Castle (3 miles north, National Trust) for a complete Cumbrian historic house day — the two properties complement each other perfectly and both can be visited comfortably in one day.
- The Bagot goats grazing in the deer park are a rare breed and well worth a detour before or after the formal garden — ask at the entrance for directions to where they are currently grazing.
- Check the website before visiting as the garden opens slightly before the house — if you arrive early you can explore the topiary while waiting for the house tours to begin.
Highlights
The Topiary Garden — Oldest in the World
The topiary garden at Levens Hall was designed by Guillaume Beaumont in 1694 and has been maintained without interruption for over 330 years — making it the oldest surviving topiary garden in the world. Its forms are eccentric and fantastical rather than rigidly geometric: great dark pyramids, globes, spiralling corkscrew columns, mushroom shapes, chess pieces, peacocks, and unclassifiable organic forms crowd the parterre in a composition that feels simultaneously ancient and surreal.
What makes Levens especially remarkable is that these extraordinary shapes represent the original 1694 design: no other surviving garden preserves a seventeenth-century topiary scheme in its authentic form.
The golden-green box and dark yew from which the shapes are clipped are maintained by a dedicated team of gardeners using the same traditional methods their predecessors used across thirteen generations.
Guillaume Beaumont and the Versailles Connection
Guillaume Beaumont, who designed the Levens topiary garden in 1694, had trained under André Le Nôtre at Versailles — the supreme authority on formal garden design in seventeenth-century Europe. He came to England in the royal service of James II, and when James was deposed in 1688 and the Levens estate passed to Colonel James Graham, Beaumont moved with him.
His design for the Levens parterre drew on the formal French tradition but deployed it in a remarkably idiosyncratic way: where Le Nôtre's grands travaux at Versailles worked on a vast horizontal scale, Beaumont at Levens created intimate, vertical, almost playful forms within a relatively small space.
The result is entirely unlike anything in France and has no equivalent in Britain. Beaumont remained at Levens until his death in 1727, personally tending the garden he had created for thirty-three years.
The Elizabethan House and Jacobean Interiors
The house at Levens Hall is built around a medieval pele tower — like many of the great houses of the Cumbrian Border country — with Elizabethan additions from the late sixteenth century. The interiors are exceptionally rich for a house of this scale: the great hall has superb Jacobean oak panelling, and certain rooms retain their original Spanish leather wall hangings — a prestigious and expensive decorative material of the seventeenth century, now extremely rare.
The family portraits that hang throughout the house span the families who have owned Levens across five centuries, from the Redmans who built the original pele tower to the Bagots who care for it today.
The house conveys the lived-in authority of a genuinely historic family home.
The Steam Engine and Model Locomotive Collection
An unexpected delight at Levens Hall is the collection of working steam engines and model locomotives, displayed in the stable buildings. The collection was assembled in the Victorian era by a passionate enthusiast among the house's owners and reflects the fascination with steam technology that gripped educated Victorians across all social classes.
The engines range from small table-top models to larger working traction engines.
On selected open days during the summer season the engines are fired up and demonstrated — a genuinely thrilling experience that draws visitors who might otherwise never have sought out a country house. The collection provides a vivid reminder that Victorian country house culture embraced mechanical curiosity alongside aesthetic refinement.
Collections
The Topiary Garden
The world's oldest surviving topiary garden — the original 1694 design by Guillaume Beaumont maintained for over 330 years in the parterre south of the house.
House Interior — Medieval to Elizabethan
Guided tour of the house rooms including Jacobean panelling, Spanish leather wall coverings, and family portrait collections from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries.
Steam Engine and Model Locomotive Collection
Collection of working Victorian steam engines and model locomotives in the stable buildings.
Deer Park and Estate
The ha-ha, parkland, ancient trees, Bagot goats and fallow deer, and River Kent.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.