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gardens wheelchair friendly and ground floor rooms/garage
Wilton House, Wiltshire

Wilton House, Wilton, Salisbury SP2 0BJ

Wilton House is part of a huge estate, still numbering 12,000 acres, given to William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke by his brother-in-law, the murderous King Henry VIII, in about 1544, following the dissolution of the monasteries, and still lived off by the descendants today. The Wilton House Trust, a charity, manages the property, its stated aim is "To preserve Wilton House, its contents, gardens and park for the public benefit... while continuing to maintain the house as a family home". In 2019 around 26,000 people visited Wilton House and its grounds, which may sound a lot, until you compare it with around 400,000 to the estates of nearby Stourhead, and 1 million to Longleat. The current occupant, William Herbert, 18th Earl of Pembroke, is quoted in the Observer as saying "opening the property to more tourists does not pay in the long run - as it increases wear-and-tear on the house". That sounds like an awkward conflict with its charitable status. It would be good to see more of Wilton House open more often (not just a few months per year), as well as them improving the gardens. Compared with Longleat, which offers more and maintains free access to Heaven's Gate, Lake Shear Water, and Longleat Pleasure Walk, Wilton is unimpressive, though the fabric of the house is. In Wilton House of more than 100 rooms only around 5 are open to the public, though these are impressive, and the grounds, though extensive, could be better maintained and more interesting, but they are wheelchair friendly.

During the pandemic in 2020 Wilton was one of a very few attractions in Wiltshire that didn't open to the public at all, other than for an antiques fair early on, despite its main attraction being to offer 22 acres of open spaces.

An exquisite model of Wilton's palladian bridge built by Eric Walford and painted by his wife Molly.