We’ve been National Trust members for quite a few years now, and had gotten around all of our local places within a year or two of becoming members. We’d kept the membership up though as it’s great for parking, particularly in the Lake District and Cornwall, and we also like a mooch around Fountains Abbey on quieter days. When the 2023 members handbook popped through the letterbox last year, I was flicking through the pages for the North East when a new property called Crook Hall Gardens caught my eye.
A new addition to the National Trust’s portfolio, Crook Hall Gardens were acquired by the Trust in 2022. Nestled in a quiet corner not far at all from the centre of Durham, we’d saved a visit to this new place for a spring weekend which wasn’t a bank holiday – we wanted to see the gardens in bloom which in photos looked lovely, but while also balancing the need to minimise crowds around Coal.
We arrived on a sunny Sunday morning at 10am, right on the opening time. After driving pretty much through the centre of Durham to get there, I was expecting it to be busier, but there were only a handful of cars in the car park. Parking is free for National Trust members (make sure you’re scanning your National Trust card and not your English Heritage car for free parking, unlike me), or pay and display otherwise.
There is a small admissions booth where we had our cards scanned and picked up a map of the site. Crook Hall Gardens are fairly small and compact, but they are absolutely full to bursting with colours and plants. We skipped the maze near the entrance (not a great option with a twitchy dog with stranger danger) and had a wander through a number of small, themed gardens. Sam had a poke around the Medieval hall while I waited outside with the dogs in a nice shady area – even at 10am it was fairly warm.
There are plenty of benches scattered around the gardens where you can sit and soak in your surroundings, or if you prefer, the admissions booth has picnic blankets which you are welcome to borrow if you’d like to sit on the lawns. We stopped off at the onsite cafe for a bacon butty and coffee – it was nice and quiet at the end of our visit, but I suspect it would be busier at lunchtime.
My favourite part of the gardens was the Walled Garden. There are two sections to this garden and both were absolutely blooming with colour when we went, with many of my favourite plants and plenty that I didn’t recognise either (not that I’m much of a botanist). Beyond the gardens there is a viewpoint trail which presumably takes you up to a view over Durham: we didn’t venture up though as we weren’t sure how far it was and didn’t want the dogs out in the sun for too long.
Dog friendly rating – 4/5. Crook Hall Gardens are a 3 paw print rated place, which is the National Trust’s designation for their most dog friendly properties. We found this to be true, with water bowls available around the site, and the dogs were welcome everywhere expect inside the Medieval Hall and second hand bookshop. I’ve just knocked off one point as I expect it gets pretty busy here, which some dogs might struggle with. We were glad we left when we did as there was a steady stream of people arriving as we left and the car park was nearly full – and the gardens really aren’t that big!
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