Tours, Talks and Trails

Explore our various tours, talks and trails:

Self-guided tours

There are self-guided tours signposted around the garden. We offer a suggested route that will lead you around the entire Garden, taking in all our most interesting natural areas. The route takes around an hour to complete and avoids all steps and the steepest slopes in the Garden. You can download the Suggested Route (to be used in conjunction with one of our maps) or collect one in the Visitor Centre.

In addition to this don't miss our trails, designed to allow you and your children to explore the garden at your own pace.

Children’s trails

To support the public in learning more about the plant-life in our Garden, the Science Trail is sign-posted, accompanied by a written guide, that will lead you from point to point around the Garden. It starts just outside the Visitor Centre and is marked with blue arrows. Targeted at older children and adults, the Science Trail much more challenging than the other activities offered in the garden. The guide explains the many fascinating aspects of plant-science and you are bound to learn something new. A copy can be downloaded on this page, or you can find it directly in the Visitor Centre.

The Quiz Trail has questions covering both the science, history and uses of plants in the Botanic Garden. It is our most popular activity for children and a great way to get them to tour the whole garden. It is signposted around the site with red arrows starting from the greenhouse lawn. After completing it children can check the answers with a special code to see if they have won a prize. Quiz sheets are available at the Visitor Centre or can be downloaded on this page.

The Nature Trail will find objects hidden amongst trees and plants are pictures of animals, inhabiting areas of foliage that closely resemble their own natural habitats. For example, the squirrel can be found in the hazel nut tree, the panda in the bamboo grove, etc. Available to download is our Nature Trail Colouring Sheet, which includes pictures of these animals for children to colour-in as they tour the Garden. Copies of the activity sheets are also available from our Visitor Centre.

Guided tours and talks

Guided tours of the garden can be arranged. Tours normally last about an hour and are tailored to the needs of each group. We recommend a maximum of 25 people for a tour. The charge for a tour is currently £60.00, plus standard admission charges.

Programmes for schools

Currently sessions are under development, but we do offer a limited selection of school visits for primary aged children. For more information email the Collections Outreach team or visit the Learn website.