Paxton House celebrates National Walking Month

May is National Walking Month and at Paxton House we are making the most of our 80 acres of grounds and gardens to appreciate the great outdoors. Our grounds were designed for walking, the Georgian gentry loved to walk – remember Lizzie Bennett striding across the country in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for whom “not a day went by without a solitary walk”? When Patrick Home of Paxton House decided to enhance his new home with beautiful surroundings in the 1750s, he wanted to enjoy the spectacular setting with meandering paths that led down to the river and to make the most of the views across the river Tweed.

Woods & Water

The spacious wooded grounds at Paxton House aren’t just woods, they are all part of this planned landscape designed by Robert Robinson in the 1750s and maintained by the Home-Robertson family over the centuries, until it became the responsibility of the Paxton House Trust in 1988. Robert Robinson was a Scottish landscape designer who learned his craft as a draughtsman for ‘Capability’ Brown, the eighteenth century’s most celebrated garden designer. Robinson had a successful career and, as well as Paxton House, designed landscaped grounds for 16 other country houses including Glamis Castle and Fyvie Castle. It is Robert Robinson we have to thank, not just for the lawns and terraces around the house, but also the winding paths and woodlands. In the 1750s, landscape was all the rage and everyone wanted naturalistic grounds up to the walls of the house with views carefully choreographed between clumps of trees and grazing animals. Many of the garden flowers we have come to rely on originated in China, the Americas and South Africa and had yet to be introduced to Britain, so Georgian gardeners were the masters of green. At Paxton House, Robert Robinson could make use of a deep winding valley, natural slopes and the majesty of the river Tweed to create a setting that just cries out to be explored.

stretch your legs

So how energetic are you? Paxton caters for everyone. You can be adventurous and head off along the Linn Burn, following a circuit of the grounds which will take you about 30 minutes or extend it to an hour by going along the riverbank to the newly restored Union Chain Bridge, the oldest vehicular suspension bridge in Europe. There is so much to see on the way, along the Linn Burn look out for James Nisbet’s elegant bridge of 1759, the Georgian icehouse, the working waterwheel and the Appleyard and alongside the river Tweed, it’s the traditional cobles, the wildlife and Victorian boathouse that will catch your interest. You will see new vistas opened up by 2021’s Storm Arwen and how we are replanting woodlands and repairing the damage. Or you can be more leisurely and stroll on the garden terraces around the house, finishing with a well earned lunch or tea in our Stables Tearoom. If you are coming with children, this is the last month to follow our Spring Trail for lots of family fun (watch out for a Fairies & Dragons Trail from 1 June). And yes, you are welcome to bring your dog, but please remember to keep them on a lead and pick up after them. This is the time to walk like a Georgian and explore another world inside our gates. Come and enjoy National Walking Month at Paxton, all you need is a grounds pass.