The hall

You follow the path up and this takes you to Howick Hall. In front of the building there is a small pond with gorgeous lilly pods.

Gardens, Walks and Beautiful Pond

Howick Hall

The cafe'

On the left of the hall, there is the cafe'. You just have to try the food. The staff are very friendly and accommodating as well.

The sandwiches are delicious. They are homemade, not those horrible supermarket packaged sandwiches. I had the ham and cheese with pickle. My wife had the tuna. They also have cakes. Again, absolutely delicious. We both had a slice of lemon cake. It was lovely. It was dry as some cakes are. It was lovely and moist.

The small pond

When we came back outside, we just had to take more photos of the flowers in this pond. Debbie took a few photos. (She loves taking photos of flowers.)

The long walk

There are different walks. We took what is sign posted as, The Long Walk.

The reason was because we wanted to see the large pond. On the map, we got when we arrived, it showed the way to this pond was along the long walk.

When we were in the cafe, we asked how far it was. They said it was about 10-15 minutes walk.

We walked past the small pond and followed the path round to the right. As we walked round, we saw a small sign the said, The Long Walk. So we went left.

The is very enjoyable and we found it relaxing. So it didn't feel like a hike.

The path goes further up past the pond but we didn't follow it. We guess it must have been another way to the pond from a different direction.

So we just went back the way we came as we wanted to see the arboretum and gardens. We also planned to see inside Howick Hall.

The beautiful gardens

The gardens are quiet something. We could see they are very well looked after.

There are all kinds of flowers. We enjoyed walking around and Debbie took lots of flower photos.

Just across from the garden, we could see these very large leaves. They are next to the little river. You can get to there by walking along the path and then crossing a little wooden bridge.

We didn't go over there this day as time was getting on and we wanted to go inside Howick Hall before it closed.

Debbie has been over to the leaves before and she said these leaves are ginormous. You can walk through them and the leaves tower above you. It reminded her of the movie, Honey I Shrunk the Kids. The scene when they are tiny and walking through the grass and the plants towering above there heads. We decided we will go there next time.

Inside Howick Hall

We went inside the house.

The entrance was promising. Highly polished floors and grand ceilings. There are exhibits as you first go in. But we wanted to see the other rooms. So we walked further down the hall and through a large doorway.

The room was typical of a house of this type. Paintings on the walks, grand furniture, high windows overlooking the grounds outside. In the first room stood a grand piano. There was a sign saying not to play it. (So we didn't touch it.)

The next room was similar. There were more paintings on the walls and grand furniture to match.

So we ventured further through the next door. There were doors into other rooms but these were looked. So the only way was back into the entrance hall.

We found this disappointing. We thought we would be able to go into more than two rooms. It was a shame.

Howick Hall is not far from Alnwick, in northern Northumberland. Just put Howick Hall in your sat nav and it'll take you there.

Although the house itself was a bit of a disappointment, the walks, gardens and beautiful big pond on one of the walks is definitely worth coming for. It is definitely somewhere you can spend the whole day.

When we arrived, we parked in the car park. It is large, so we had no problem parking.

Nearby, there is the reception and gift shop. This is where you pay. The prices are very reasonable compared to other places we've been to.

The beautiful big pond

We noticed a few wooden benches along the way which is handy if you fancy a little rest.

After about 10 minutes, we sat on a bench and had another look at the map. We knew it couldn't be much further.

A woman came along and so we asked her. She wasn't certain but said it shouldn't be much further and would be on our left a little further along.

We walked a little further and saw a path on our left. We wondered if we should keep going straight on or turn left. We looked up the path on our left and it looked like the trees were opening up into a space. So we took a look and then there it was. Our first words were, wow!

The best place to see the look is just as we came in. There was some sort of metal wheel and just in front a wooden bench.

All across the pond were lilly pods. In the middle was this beautiful white swan. It sat there side on to us as if posing for it's picture. Of course, we obliged. But as wildlife usually does, it swan away over to the other side. So it was not as easy to photograph. However, Debbie took a nice one before it swam away.

Our verdict

Although the hall itself was a bit disappointing, it's definitely worth coming to.

The gardens are amazing, the walks are lovely and relaxing and the big pond is definitely worth seeing.

When we went, the entrance cost was very reasonable compared to others. It was £12.50 each adult. Plus, there is no extra for parking.

Seahouses

Alnwick Gardens

Northumberlandia