National Trust: Felbrigg Hall, Gardens and Estate

Being a non-driving family we don’t often get to visit National Trust properties. Sadly, a lot of them are not close enough to public transport and we tent to overlook them when thinking about days out. However, recently we went on a day out with my sister and brother-in-law and made the most of being able to go somewhere in a car. Felbrigg Hall, Gardens and Estate was where we chose to go!

Felbrigg Hall, Gardens and Estate is only a short 10 minute drive away from Cromer or Sheringham in Norfolk, or about 45 minutes from Norwich. Entrance to the gardens and house are free if you’re a National Trust member or you can visit the website for information about entry prices.

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Felbrigg Estate

One of the great things about the Felbrigg estate is that you don’t have to pay to use this part of the grounds and they’re open from dawn until dusk. Felbrigg is made up of 520 acres of woods, with rolling parkland, a lake and waymarked paths. You’ll see a fair amount of dog walkers around the estate and it’s a great place to go for a walk.

There are various different walks to do around Felbrigg, which can be seen on the maps they give out. There are also arrows around the walks which help you figure out which way to go next. We went on one of the shorter walks as any of the longer ones would have been a bit too much for Erin. However, the shorter walk takes you across fields, past the church and around the lake and the views are amazing. It was well worth it even though Erin was exhausted by the end of it.

We have been before, a few years ago, and took a pushchair with us and most of the lake walk was suitable, with the exception of a few steps. I imagine you could easily walk around a lot with a pushchair but maybe not all of it with a pram.

The house

We had originally planned on visiting Felbrigg because the weather was supposed to be bad. We figured that it would be nice to walk around and explore which was a great idea in theory. Erin, on the day of the visit, had absolutely no interest in looking at much of anything. The house is beautiful though with a lot to look at, such as the library with it’s floor to ceiling shelves of books.

I noticed that there was staff in each room on hand to answer any questions, give out some knowledge and make sure everything stayed as it should. It was nice to see everything being looked after so well.

The gardens

During our visit we got to explore the walled garden, although there are others to walk around as well. This area was definitely my favourite part of our visit and somewhere I already want to go back to.

The walled garden has lots of walkways and beautifully planted spaces filled will all kinds of plants and flowers. We visited in July and the garden was filled with so much colour and it smelled fantastic! Not only are there lots of great photo opportunities but there are benches dotted around too if you feel like sitting down, resting and taking in the view.

Something else I really liked about the walled garden was how safe it was for children. Erin was able to run around, especially on the paths, and as long as we kept up with her she could pretty much go where she wanted. The garden wasn’t overly busy while we were there but I imagine it would be busier on a day where the weather is nicer.

Facilities

Close to the main building are the toilets, cafe and a couple of shops. It’s worth noting that these are the only toilets available so if you plan of going on a walk around the estate (the walks range from 1.5 to 4.5 miles) you will need to take note of this, especially if you’re visiting with children.

We chose to have lunch at the cafe, where they serve things like sandwiches, soups and jacket potatoes. We paid around £23 for 3 drinks, a soup, potato wedges (the portions are quite small), a jacket potato with cheese and beans and a children’s jacket potato. The food was really nice and pretty good value for somewhere like this. Our food didn’t take too long to arrive either even though the cafe was really busy when we were there.

Would we go back?

Felbigg was a really lovely day out and one that we definitely want to do again. Our visit for 2 adults and a child was £27.50 for entrance plus lunch on top. My sister and brother in law are National Trust members so their parking was free. I think when we have a car we’ll invest in a membership so that we can go back as often as we like.

Find out more about becoming a National Trust member.