The Cotswold Guide
A view of Sudeley Castle
Country house · Winchcombe, Gloucestershire

Sudeley Castle

The 15th-century castle near Winchcombe where Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII, lived out her final months — and where she is buried in the chapel.

About

Sudeley has more royal connections per stone than almost any other house in England. Catherine Parr lived here briefly after her marriage to Thomas Seymour and died in 1548; her tomb remains in St Mary's chapel within the grounds, the only private house in the country to hold a queen's burial.

The castle ruins, the restored apartments, and ten distinct gardens sit in 1,200 acres of parkland on the edge of Winchcombe. The Queen's Garden, a parterre of old roses, is the photographic centrepiece in June.

The Cotswold Guide Top Tips

  • The Queen's Garden of old roses is at its peak in mid-to-late June — go on a weekday morning if you want it to yourself.
  • Time-slot tickets for the winter Spectacle of Light sell out by mid-November — book in October.

In Winchcombe

An ancient royal capital tucked beneath the escarpment, with Sudeley Castle on its edge and eight long-distance footpaths meeting in its centre.

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Find accommodation near Sudeley Castle

Hotels, B&Bs and self-catering cottages in and around Winchcombe — within easy reach of Sudeley Castle. Browse availability for your dates on Booking.com.

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Gallery

  • Sudeley's Queen's Garden — formal parterre, topiary cones and rose beds in front of the castle's main range, with the chapel tower beyond
  • The chimneys, mullioned windows and bay-windowed range of Sudeley's south facade, seen from the formal parterre
  • Sudeley's east wing and the ruined arches of the medieval Tithe Barn, with a yew topiary hedge on the right
  • Looking through a gap between two large yew topiary cones into Sudeley's Knot Garden, lavender in the stone planters in the foreground
  • A late-summer herbaceous border at Sudeley — penstemons, daylilies and asters spilling over a Cotswold-stone wall under climbing roses
  • Rudbeckia, salvias and red hot pokers in a Sudeley border, with the chapel tower rising above the yew hedges beyond
  • A field of multicoloured LED pyramids on the lawn beside the ruined Tithe Barn at Sudeley, lit for the winter Spectacle of Light
  • Sudeley Castle floodlit in red and blue at night, with a string-of-light Christmas tree on the lawn
  • An illuminated dandelion-style light fountain on a Sudeley lawn, with the castle silhouette and chapel beyond
  • Sudeley's ruined Tudor wing washed in deep blue light during the winter Spectacle of Light, bare branches arching above
  • A vivid orange-and-red flower-shaped light sculpture reflected in a pool on Sudeley's terrace, fairy lights threaded through the stone balustrade

Continue reading

Hidcote Manor Garden

Lawrence Johnston's early-20th-century 'garden of rooms' in the hills above Chipping Campden — one of the most influential English gardens of the modern era.

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A view of Hidcote Manor Garden