Prior Park Landscape Garden
About
An intimate 18th-century landscape garden dropping down a steep valley on the southern rim of the city, created by Bath's great builder-entrepreneur Ralph Allen with advice from the poet Alexander Pope and Capability Brown. Its centrepiece is the 1755 Palladian bridge over the lakes, one of only four of its design in the world, with the city appearing beyond the valley mouth: one of the finest composed views in England. Now National Trust, the garden has no visitor parking at all, which is deliberate: walk up from Widcombe, take the bus, or use the park-and-ride. Adult admission is £12 (from March 2026); combine it with the adjacent stretch of the Bath Skyline for the full Ralph Allen circuit.
Photos
Highlights
- ✓The 1755 Palladian bridge, one of only four of its kind in the world
- ✓The composed view down the valley to the city
- ✓Ralph Allen's landscape, shaped with Alexander Pope and Capability Brown
- ✓Links directly onto the Bath Skyline route
Tips
- →There is genuinely no visitor parking; walk up through Widcombe (steep), take the bus, or park-and-ride.
- →Do not follow sat-nav to the postcode; it delivers you to the neighbouring school.
- →Storm damage closed the garden briefly in June 2026; check the National Trust page for current notices.
Best Season
More Attraction Activities
The Roman Baths
Britain's great Roman religious spa around the country's only hot spring, with the steaming Great Bath at its heart. Book ahead; you cannot bathe here.
Thermae Bath Spa
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Bath Abbey
England's last great medieval church, with climbing stone angels on the west front, fan vaulting inside, and a Tower Tour overlooking the Great Bath.