I should have carried on this series way before now, but hopefully it will give you some great inspiration for days out in the UK. 2020 certainly wasn’t the year for a 12 in 12 adventure so we made the most of the UK when we were allowed! It will mainly be England and Wales focussed for now, as I haven’t been able to visit anywhere else yet, but hopefully may expand to the rest of the UK in due course! I decided to start again with Arundel Castle as I literally gasped as we walked around!
Arundel Castle is in Arundel- Shock. Its a small town which is just super quaint all round. You can easily spend a day wandering, visiting the castle, fuelling up in various eateries and walking around the nearby boating lake, or going for a swim in the Lido. For such a small place its got a lot of things to do!
Getting There
- Bus- We stayed in the nearby town of Littlehampton and got the bus into Arundel which was reasonably priced and took around fifteen mins
- Car- Parking wise there’s a large car park by the Lido, another near the castle called Mill Road and some on road parking on Mill Road itself Arundel has its own station too
- Train- You can reach Arundel direct from London Victoria in around and hour and a half so great for a day trip out of the capital!
Planning your trip
There’s various events on throughout the year at Arundel Castle. In April it hosts a Tulip festival and in May an Allium festival. There’s also many historical days and even a Jaguar Car festival and open air theatre weekend planned in 2021! Firstly decide your if you want to visit to coincide with one of these events. If so then look to book! On normal weeks tickets are currently released on Fridays for a few weeks in advance. Currently only the gardens can be visited but keep your eyes peeled for the next stages of government advice for when the castle itself will reopen if you want to see that too.
Tickets for Arundel Castle gardens are currently £12 each, and MUST be pre-booked. For Historic Houses members you can get in free between 10am and 1130am (from 1st May.) It’s first come, first served and limited to 50 members in one day. When we went in August 2020 we had booked for midday and the couple in front were HH members and were late and were denied admission. So be wary of being on time and being one of the 50 in!
Plan the time you will be there, as you can literally spend all day in the gardens if the weather permits! Once in you can stay until closing too. There’s refreshments in the Garden Kiosk or you can take your own picnic and eat it in the grounds. It states on the map and brochure you get that they are welcome!
Arundel Castle, Gardens and Grounds
There is so much to see in Arundel Castel Gardens! Firstly we walked along the long path up to the castle frontage. What a view! the castle is huge and looks really magical. Just down to the right of here is the lower lawns and medieval fish ponds.
Then back up around the side of the castle leads you into the main gardens entrance. Here you’ll find the kitchen garden with glasshouse, and lots of beautiful flowers plus fruit and veg. I love this area as you could sit and just relax in it.
There’s also more gardens with lots of secret doorways (some faux!), a few water features and a large lawn area. Which is perfect for a picnic!
Inside Arundel Castle
When we visited some of the inside of the castle was open. Face masks have to be worn inside and it had only recently reopened when we visited so was pretty new to everyone at the time! The smaller places like the Keep and the Chapel were still closed. We still got to walk through some of the other areas of the castle. Here’s a few sneak peeks!
Overall we had a lovely visit to Arundel Castle and we were blessed with amazing weather! Would recommend a day trip and then visiting some other places in the area. Post to come on those soon. or if you’re impatient I have a guide on Instagram here! Let me know if you’ve visited or plan to visit wont you?
