Leeds Castle

About this place

First thing to know: Leeds Castle is nowhere near Leeds. It sits in Kent, roughly 35 km west of Canterbury, on two small islands in a lake formed by the River Len, so that its pale stone seems to float on the water. That view from the far bank is what has let it market itself for decades as 'the loveliest castle in the world', and if you took your photograph there and never went in, you would have had about half the experience. Behind the Norman face lies a genuinely royal story. Rebuilt in stone in 1119 by Robert de Crevecoeur, it became a palace of Edward I in the thirteenth century, home in turn to six medieval queens, and was remodelled by Henry VIII for Catherine of Aragon. Yet what you walk through today is not a queen's palace but the country house of Lady Baillie, an Anglo-American heiress who bought the castle in 1926, refurnished it in the taste of the 1920s and 30s, and left it to the Leeds Castle Foundation on her death in 1974. The interior tour is elegant but brief, an hour at most, which is the first caveat for anyone paying full price expecting something on the scale of Edinburgh Castle. The real value is outdoors. The estate runs to 500 acres: a maze of 2,400 yews that ends in an underground shell grotto children adore, birds-of-prey displays at 2pm daily from April to September and at weekends and school holidays only in winter, formal gardens and wilder walks around the lake, large playgrounds, adventure golf, a land train and a small ferry across the water, plus the Dog Collar Museum, which remains, whatever you make of the name, one of the best-known things here. Paths are mostly surfaced and fine for pushchairs, with some slopes and stairs inside the castle itself. In short, a full family day rather than a stop-off. A standard adult ticket starts at GBP 34.50 online (38.50 at the gate), a child aged 3 to 15 is 24.50 (28 at the gate) and a family ticket from 87, with under-3s free; all of them are annual passes that let you return free for a year. The Ultimate version at 45.50 for an adult adds ferry and train rides and a round of adventure golf, worth it only if you have children who will ride everything. Grounds open daily 10:00-18:00 from April to September (last entry 16:00) and 10:00-17:00 from October (last entry 15:00), dropping to 10:00-15:30 between 20 November and 3 January, while the castle itself shuts at 15:30 in winter. The whole site closes on Christmas Day, on the July concert day and over the November fireworks weekend. From Canterbury the easy route is by car, about 45 minutes via the M20 to junction 8 (satnav ME17 1RG), with parking included in the ticket. By train you change at Ashford for Bearsted, 25 to 30 minutes, then take a five-minute taxi or walk 30 to 40 minutes, making it about an hour and a half door to door; the Stagecoach 510 bus comes into the grounds on Saturdays and on other days stops at the Mercure hotel, a 12-minute walk away.