Painshill Park Vineyard

Painshill Park Vineyard: Sparkling Wines from an 18th-Century Surrey Landscape Garden

Set within the rolling Surrey countryside near Cobham, Painshill Park Vineyard is the small but celebrated two-acre vineyard at the heart of Painshill, one of the finest surviving examples of an English landscape garden of the 18th century. The vineyard occupies a south-facing slope at the highest point of the 158-acre historic landscape, where the same kind of free-draining, sun-baked soil that made this corner of Surrey famous for its hops and fruit is today producing award-winning sparkling wines under the careful stewardship of the Painshill Park Trust.

Although the vineyard is small and the wines are made in tiny quantities, Painshill is one of the most distinctive wine-producing sites in the south of England. The estate's flagship Painshill Sparkling White and Painshill Sparkling Rosé are produced from a thoughtful blend of heritage and modern grape varieties, including Pinot Noir, one of the varieties grown by the garden's original creator Charles Hamilton, alongside modern additions such as Chardonnay, Seyval Blanc and Pinot Grigio. Bottles are stocked in the on-site Painshill Garden Shop alongside Painshill Kitchen Garden Gin, distilled in collaboration with The Gin Kitchen of Dorking, and Painshill Honey, harvested from hives near the Keyhole Plantation.

A landscape garden with a vineyard at its heart

Painshill is described by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as "Britain's greatest contribution to the visual arts", a bold claim that places the site firmly within the canon of internationally significant designed landscapes. The garden was laid out between 1738 and 1773 by the Honourable Charles Hamilton, the fourteenth child and youngest son of the Sixth Earl of Abercorn, who used the inheritance from his Irish aristocratic family to assemble land on the slopes above the River Mole.

Hamilton had been deeply marked by two Grand Tours across continental Europe and returned home with a head full of Claude Lorrain landscapes, Salvator Rosa wildernesses, classical statuary and exotic plants. His intention at Painshill was to translate those travelling memories into a living painting: a circuit route around a 14-acre serpentine lake, framed by woodland, meadow and a sequence of carefully placed follies. The vineyard was part of that original vision. The first recorded wine harvest at Painshill dates from the 1750s, when Hamilton was still very much alive and the garden was at the height of its fame.

Charles Hamilton and the creation of Painshill

Charles Hamilton was born in Dublin in 1704 and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he befriended Henry Hoare (later creator of Stourhead) and the writer William Beckford. After his second Grand Tour in 1732, during which he travelled with the politician Henry Fox, Hamilton acquired the Painshill estate in 1737, taking out a mortgage with Fox that set the tone for a lifetime of ambitious borrowing and creative spending.

Hamilton moved into the property in 1738 and began shaping the landscape almost immediately. In 1748 he received his first seed box from the celebrated American plant collector John Bartram, beginning a long love affair with exotic flora that would later be commemorated in Painshill's John Bartram Heritage Collection of American Trees and Shrubs. In the 1750s the first wine was harvested from the vineyard; in 1759 Hamilton built the Turkish Tent as a viewing pavilion at the end of the circuit; in 1762 he completed the Temple of Bacchus to house a cast of the Roman god of wine brought back from his Grand Tours; and in 1772 he added the wistful Ruined Abbey at the lakeside.

Hamilton was forced to sell Painshill in 1773 after years of accumulated debt. He retired to Bath, married his second wife Frances Calvert in 1774 and died in Lansdown House on 18 September 1786. He is buried in the choir of Bath Abbey. During his lifetime the garden had been visited by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third Presidents of the United States, who took Hamilton's ideas back across the Atlantic.

Decline and restoration by the Painshill Park Trust

After Hamilton's sale, Painshill passed through a succession of owners. The Victorian era turned the vineyard into a rockery, while two world wars and post-war neglect took a heavy toll on the follies. By 1950 the wilderness had reclaimed the landscape: the Crystal Grotto's ceiling had collapsed, the Hermitage was chopped up for firewood and the Gothic Tower was gutted by fire in 1973.

During the 1960s the local historian David Taylor, working with garden historian Michael Symes and others, began the campaign to save Painshill from being lost forever. In 1980 Elmbridge Borough Council purchased 158 acres of the original estate and in 1981 the Painshill Park Trust was formed as a registered charity with a clear mission: to restore the landscape as closely as possible to Charles Hamilton's original vision.

The restoration has been painstaking. The Gothic Temple was the first building to be repaired in 1985. The Gothic Tower was officially reopened by the Duchess of York on 18 October 1989. In 1992 the vineyard was replanted on its south-facing slope, and by the late 1990s it was producing wine once more. HRH The Prince of Wales reopened the rebuilt Turkish Tent in 1995, and in 1998 the project received the International Europa Nostra Medal for exemplary restoration. In 2004 the Hermitage was rebuilt by the landscape team using timber cleared from the estate. In 2010 the National Lottery Heritage Fund supported completion of the Crystal Grotto. The Temple of Bacchus was restored externally in 2017, and the most urgent current project is the rebuild of the Chinese Bridge, which will be reconstructed in sustainable timber with hidden steel struts after the original 1980s wooden structure deteriorated beyond repair.

The vineyard today

The Painshill vineyard sits at the top of a sunny, free-draining slope with views across the North Downs, the kind of position Charles Hamilton would have recognised instantly. Modern trellising is used throughout, except for the last three vines, which are trained in the 18th-century style to demonstrate the historical method of vine growing.

The grape varieties are a deliberate blend of heritage and modern. Pinot Noir is one of the varieties Hamilton himself grew, and it provides structure and colour for the Painshill Sparkling Rosé. Chardonnay, the classic Champagne partner, brings finesse and ageing potential. Seyval Blanc, a hybrid with good resistance to the British climate, adds aromatic lift. Pinot Grigio contributes a fresher, more neutral fruit profile that helps balance the blend.

The grapes are still picked by hand by Painshill's dedicated volunteer team, and the wine is produced in the traditional method used for quality sparkling wine. Because the vineyard is only two acres, the annual yield is small, and bottles are sold exclusively through the on-site Painshill Garden Shop. Production is so limited that the wine is not always in stock; visitors are advised to call in advance before making a special journey to buy a bottle.

Painshill Kitchen Garden Gin and Painshill Honey

As well as the vineyard, Painshill produces two other celebrated local food and drink products, both of which carry the unmistakable flavour of the landscape itself. Painshill Kitchen Garden Gin was first created in summer 2019 in partnership with the Surrey distillery The Gin Kitchen of Dorking. Botanicals and fruit for the gin, including lemon balm, rosemary and shredded rhubarb, are grown on site by the Painshill landscape team, giving the spirit a genuinely local character. Like the sparkling wine, the gin is made in small batches and is not always available.

Painshill Honey is harvested from bee hives located near the Keyhole Plantation, and is one of the most popular products in the garden shop. The honey varies in colour and flavour through the season as the bees forage on different flowering plants across the landscape, and availability is dependent on the natural rhythms of the hive. As with the wine and gin, visitors are advised to call ahead before making a special trip.

The Crystal Grotto and the other follies

The vineyard is only one part of the experience of visiting Painshill. The garden contains a remarkable collection of 18th-century buildings, or follies, carefully placed around the lake and woodland circuit. Most celebrated is the Crystal Grotto, an otherworldly naturalistic cave on the lake in the centre of the landscape. Over 10,000 crystals were used in its construction; shafts of light pierce the interior through carefully placed openings in the ceiling and bounce off coral pools and lake water, making the crystals sparkle as they would in the most ambitious late-Georgian pleasure garden. The German landscape designer Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell (1750 - 1823) called it "the finest of its type ever built". The Grotto is included in general admission but is closed on Mondays for routine maintenance (except on Bank Holiday Mondays).

Walking clockwise from the Visitor Centre, visitors encounter the Gothic Temple, a ten-sided timber-and-render building whose five open sides perfectly frame the view towards the lake. King George III once declared the view from the Gothic Temple his favourite in England. Further along the circuit is the 27-metre Gothic Tower, with its narrow 99-step spiral staircase, from the top of which four counties and on a clear day Canary Wharf and Windsor Castle can be seen. The tower houses a charming summer pop-up café on the first floor that serves hot and cold drinks, cakes and snacks throughout August on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Temple of Bacchus, completed by Hamilton in 1762 and rebuilt externally by the Trust in 2017, crowns the highest point of the garden with views across the Surrey Hills. The cast of the statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, currently stands outside the shop while the temple interior awaits future restoration. The Ruined Abbey sits wistfully by the water's edge and casts beautiful reflections into the Serpentine Lake. The 18th-century idea was that monasteries often produced wine, so the building's architecture complements the vineyard planted next to it.

The Turkish Tent marks the end of the historic route. The original brick, wood, canvas and papier-mâché structure was rebuilt in the 1990s in brick, wood and fibreglass so that the romantic viewing pavilion could survive the English weather. The view from the Turkish Tent deliberately mirrors the one seen from the Gothic Temple, completing the circular walk around Hamilton's living painting.

Other highlights of the landscape include the 14-acre Serpentine Lake, created from water raised from the River Mole by the historic Waterwheel (one of the largest working wheels in the UK at 10.6 metres in diameter and built in the 1830s), the Hermitage hidden in fir woodland on the western side of the garden, and the Five Arch Bridge, a Palladian structure of the kind Hamilton would have seen on his Grand Tours and which has appeared in Netflix's hit series Bridgerton.

Plantings, trees and seasonal colour

Painshill's plantings are integral to the experience. The Great Cedar, framed in the arch of the Gothic Temple, is the largest multi-stemmed cedar in Europe, and the ancient oak beside the lake is thought to be more than 450 years old. The area around the Chinese Bridge is home to the John Bartram Heritage Collection of American Trees and Shrubs, which holds National Plant Collection status. The Kitchen Garden by the riverside and the Amphitheatre of evergreen shrubs both reflect Hamilton's original 18th-century planting plans, which the Trust has researched and replanted wherever possible.

The garden changes dramatically through the year, and visitors who become members speak of returning every few weeks to see the snowdrops and daffodils of spring, the bluebells of late April and May, the wildflower meadows and picnics of summer, the fiery colour of the deciduous trees in autumn and the frost-laced silhouettes of the follies in winter.

Planning your visit: tickets and opening times

Painshill is open daily from 10am to 6pm, with last entry at 5pm, all year round except Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The Crystal Grotto is included in general admission but is closed on Mondays for routine maintenance (except Bank Holiday Mondays). Tickets are cheaper when bought online in advance, with a £1.00 booking fee per transaction; on-the-door tickets are also available.

Members enter free of charge on production of their physical membership card (photocopies and photos are not accepted). Child tickets apply to visitors aged 5 to 16 inclusive; children aged 4 and under visit free. Concession rates are available for visitors over 66, students, members of the military and those working for the emergency services. All proceeds from ticket admissions and shop sales go directly to the Painshill Park Trust and help protect and preserve the historic landscape.

For groups of 10 or more, the Trust offers a range of discounted rates. Weekday adult admission from November to March costs from £7.50 per person, rising to £8.00 from April to June and September to October, and £10.00 in July and August. Weekend rates range from £8.00 to £11.00 per person depending on the time of year. Group leaders are admitted free for parties of 30 or more, and coach drivers and group leaders receive complimentary refreshments.

Tours and experiences at Painshill

The Trust offers a generous menu of guided experiences for visitors who want to understand the landscape in greater depth.

• Welcome to Painshill - a 30-minute introductory talk that sets the historical context for exploring the garden. From £2.00 per person on top of standard admission.
• The Historic Lake Tour - a 1.5-hour guided walk around the historic route past Fir Walk, the Crystal Grotto, Woollett Bridge, the Five Arch Bridge and the Turkish Tent. From £3.00 per person on top of standard admission.
• Hamilton's Grand Tour - the complete three-hour circuit of the 160-acre estate, including the Waterwheel, the Hermitage, the Gothic Tower, the Temple of Bacchus and the Turkish Tent. From £4.00 per person on top of standard admission.
• Vines and Wine - a three-hour walking and tasting experience that takes in the vineyard and the Temple of Bacchus, finishing with a wine tasting and views across the Surrey Hills. £18.50 per person, including arrival refreshments and a guide.
• The Gardener's Tour - a three-hour specialist tour led by a member of the landscape team, starting in the Walled Garden and exploring the plants, trees and seasonal work of the estate. £18.50 per person.
• Buggy Tour - a one-hour guided tour of the park in one of the Trust's golf buggies, ideal for less-mobile visitors or those who cannot manage the full walking route. £5.00 per person on top of admission, for groups of up to five, subject to availability and at least seven working days' advance booking.

The Trust also runs Joint Tours in partnership with other local attractions. The Follies and Vines tour combines a visit to Painshill with a guided indoor wine tasting at the family-run Denbies Wine Estate, one of the UK's largest wine producers. The Landscape to Land Speed package combines Painshill with the Brooklands Motor Museum and costs £28.00 per person. The Two Tours are More partnership with West Horsley Place costs £26.00 per person and combines a morning at Painshill with an afternoon at the historic Tudor house.

Food and drink

Visitors can eat at Mr Hamilton's Tea Room inside the Visitor Centre, which serves a seasonal menu of freshly cooked breakfast and lunch options, pastries, cakes, snacks and ice-cream, with vegan and gluten-free options available. Both indoor and outdoor seating are offered, and a sample tearoom menu is available to download as a PDF.

On summer Saturdays and Sundays, the first-floor pop-up café inside the Gothic Tower serves hot and cold drinks, cakes and snacks with spectacular views across the landscape. The volunteer-run Horsebox Café sits out by the Woollett Bridge and serves a limited menu of filter coffee, tea, soft drinks and snacks. An ice-cream hut outside the Visitor Centre operates on summer weekends and during school holidays.

The most distinctive dining experience at Painshill is the Tea in the Tower afternoon tea, served inside the 18th-century Gothic Tower throughout August on Saturdays and Sundays. The intimate experience includes delicate finger sandwiches, freshly baked scones with clotted cream and jam, handcrafted cakes and pastries and savoury snacks, paired with fine teas or freshly brewed coffee. Guests should be aware that the tea is served on the third floor of the tower, accessed by a spiral staircase.

Picnics are very welcome throughout the landscape; visitors are asked to take all litter home and not to eat inside the follies.

Accessibility

Painshill is committed to making the landscape available to all. The Visitor Hub, Tea Room, Painshill Garden Shop and toilets are fully accessible, with tills at wheelchair-accessible height and dedicated disabled parking bays near the entrance. There is an accessible route around a two-mile paved section of the lake that allows less-mobile visitors to see many of the key features including the Crystal Grotto, and an accessible route map is available to download.

All-terrain and standard wheelchairs, wheeled walkers, folding seat canes and folding walking sticks are available to borrow free of charge, though pre-booking is recommended by emailing info@painshill.co.uk or calling 01932 868113. The Crystal Grotto has steps at its main entrance; visitors can use the narrower exit for easier access, although very large mobility scooters may not fit through the archway. Free admission is given to the carer of a registered disabled person.

Membership

Becoming a member of the Painshill Park Trust is the best way to support the charity and to enjoy the landscape throughout the seasons. All memberships run for 12 months from the date of purchase and include unlimited free entry in opening hours, free events including family trails and history talks, early-morning and late-evening access on selected summer days, 10 per cent off in the Tea Room and Garden Shop, discounts on ticketed events and talks, and exclusive 2-for-1 offers at other Surrey attractions.

• Individual Membership - £75.00 one-off or £65.00 by annual Direct Debit (saving £10).
• Joint Membership - £90.00 one-off or £80.00 by annual Direct Debit.
• Family Membership - £105.00 one-off or £95.00 by annual Direct Debit (admits two adults and up to four children aged 5 - 16).
• Student Membership - £50.00 one-off or £40.00 by annual Direct Debit.

Gift memberships are available and can be bought online or in person. Corporate membership starts at £550 per year for a Bronze package covering up to 10 employees and rising to £750 for Silver and from £1,000 for Gold, each with progressively richer benefits including venue hire and catering discounts.

Education and learning

Painshill runs a thriving Education programme that uses 158 acres of natural and historic landscape for outdoor learning at Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 - 5 and SEND level. Activities for schools range from Minibeast Safaris, Fairytale Story Walks, Wild Art and Sensory Walks to more adventurous days including a Day in the Stone Age, Viking Vs Saxons, Greek Myths and Legends, Dragon Quests and Pirate Challenges. The Trust also welcomes Brownies, Guides, Cubs, Scouts and Home Education groups at the special group rate of £4.50 per child (£4.00 per child for groups staying at the adjacent Heyswood Guide Camp).

Supporting the Painshill Park Trust

Painshill is an independent registered charity and receives no regular government funding. In addition to buying tickets, joining as a member or volunteering, visitors can support the Trust by donating online, sponsoring a bench or a Memory Leaf in the Kitchen Garden, leaving a legacy gift in their will, or making a corporate donation. Sponsorship opportunities range from funding a specific folly or bridge to sponsoring events and campaigns.

The current major appeal is the rebuild of the Chinese Bridge, which Hamilton originally built in 1760 to take visitors across the lake to the Crystal Grotto. The 1980s wooden structure has deteriorated after 40 years of use, and the Trust is replacing it with sustainable timber on hidden steel struts. More than £165,000 has already been raised towards the £250,000 target.

Events programme

Painshill runs a year-round programme of events inspired by the landscape, its history and the changing seasons. Highlights from the current calendar include:

• Wonder Seekers Trail - a summer family trail running from 18 July to 1 September 2026, 10am to 5pm.
• Sensory Circuits - weekly outdoor sensory movement sessions from 23 July to 27 August 2026, 9am to 10am.
• Tea in the Tower - afternoon tea inside the Gothic Tower on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 30 August 2026, 2pm to 4pm.
• Forest Seekers - children's woodland activity day on 5 August 2026, 10am to 4pm.
• Members' Extended Access - Wednesday-evening members-only access from 5 to 26 August 2026, 6pm to 8pm.
• Plant Seekers, Story Makers, Map Seekers and Habitat Seekers - a series of children's discovery workshops running through August 2026.
• Painshill Sleepout - an overnight charity sleepout in the landscape on the evening of 20 August 2026.
• Runnymede Art Society Exhibition - a weekend exhibition on 29 and 30 August 2026.
• Something You Should Hear - autumn family trail from 5 September to 1 November 2026.
• Talk: Reviving the Medlar by Jane Steward - illustrated talk on 2 October 2026, 10.30am to 11.30am.
• Poetry Writing Workshop: Nature Poetry - Autumn - on 13 October 2026, 10.30am to 12.30pm.
• Talk: Magical Mushrooms & Fabulous Fungi by Peter Smith - on 23 October 2026, 10.30am to 11.30am.

How to find Painshill

Painshill is on Between Streets in Cobham, Surrey, just off junction 10 of the M25 and the A3 towards London, with the closest sat-nav reference KT11 1AG. Parking is free for all visitors. The nearest railway station is Cobham & Stoke d'Abernon, two miles away, with Walton-on-Thames and Weybridge stations five miles away; taxis are normally available at all three. Community bus route 715 or 408 stops at Between Streets, and the volunteer-run Chatterbus service offers a 2-for-1 ticket for visitors arriving by bus.

A small vineyard with a big story

Painshill Park Vineyard is a charming contradiction: a tiny two-acre English vineyard inside a 158-acre Grade I listed 18th-century landscape garden, run as a charitable conservation project rather than a commercial wine estate. Its bottles are made in such small quantities that they are often only available at the on-site shop, and visitors who taste the Painshill Sparkling White, Painshill Sparkling Rosé or the Kitchen Garden Gin are tasting not just wine and spirit but the literal fruits of Charles Hamilton's 18th-century vision, preserved and renewed by four decades of restoration work by the Painshill Park Trust.

Whether you arrive for the wine, the Crystal Grotto, the follies, the woodland trails or simply an unhurried walk around a living painting, you are helping to fund the next phase of the restoration: the rebuilding of the Chinese Bridge, the eventual completion of the Temple of Bacchus interior and the careful stewardship of one of the most important historic gardens in the world.