A historic County Durham estate is opening a temporary installation that repurposes historic spaces for family use.
Raby Castle, Park and Gardens in the UK is moving its summer programming into a new indoor environment, designed to engage younger visitors with a new event.
The Hidden Garden will take over the 18th-century Riding School until Sunday 23rd August. The installation follows the castle’s previous Castle in Bloom exhibition and shifts the focus toward an interactive, sensory-friendly environment housed entirely indoors. This ensures the attraction remains accessible regardless of changing summer weather conditions.
Visitors begin the experience by walking through an ornate Gothic tunnel decorated with foliage and twinkling lights. This leads to a 1.2-metre-tall grass-walled maze adorned with wooden tree silhouettes, butterflies, and flowers. To heighten the sensory elements, the space incorporates moving colourful kaleidoscope projections, a central rotating mirror ball, and atmospheric background music.
Beyond the maze, the attraction opens into an English Country Garden display. This area features a central water fountain surrounded by toadstools, artificial trees with wisteria branches, green ficus leaves, and fairy lights. A blossom tree equipped with a wooden swing provides a photography spot before guests move into the final activity zone, which contains giant interactive garden games.
Wider estate integration
Sophie Brown, sales and events manager at Raby Castle, Park and Gardens, explained the strategy behind the new attraction: “Our vision of bringing nature inside this summer has been a tremendous success, with our Castle in Bloom installation impressing all who have visited, but we had one more building in the castle grounds that was ready to become its very own oasis for children over summer.
“Whilst our new hidden garden and sensory-friendly experience will appeal to all ages, we wanted to make sure that it had plenty of interactive and explorative elements to spark the imaginations of our younger visitors. The Hidden Garden experience can be enjoyed at your own pace and as an indoor addition, it will also be the perfect place to shelter from those summer showers or midday sunshine.”
The temporary indoor attraction forms part of a broader summer offering across the lifestyle destination, which is overseen by custodians Lord and Lady Barnard. The estate recently completed a three-year development project that restored several historic buildings for public access. During the summer holidays, the site is also running outdoor activities, including appearances by Cyril the Squirrel at the Plotters’ Forest woodland adventure playground, trails through the 18th-century Walled Gardens remodelled by renowned garden designer Luciano Giubbilei, and access to the deer park.
Raby Castle is tying the event’s admission into the government’s Great British Summer Savings scheme, offering a 15% discount on family tickets and children’s meals until Tuesday 1st September. A comprehensive family explorer ticket, covering the hidden garden, the castle, the flower passport trail, the deer park, and the adventure playground, costs £65.80 for two adults and two children when booked online in advance. Standalone entry to the indoor garden experience is priced at £4.38 for adults and children aged 4 to 15, and £2.19 for children under four.
