Easy hikes and walks around Waddesdon

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A series of flat, paved, traffic-free roads will lead you around the beautiful, well-kept grounds of Waddesdon Estate.

A bridge spans over a small tributary of the River Thames next to a waterfall, creating a beautiful scene as you jog past.

The powerhouse for the Manor. With the original lift inside

For the light festival the Parterre was changed into a light spectacular in keeping with the illuminated house. Waddesdon is famous for its Carpet Bedding and every spring and summer we change the design of the beds on the Parterre and on either side of the South Fountain. A French-inspired formal garden, a parterre is made up of a symmetrical pattern of beds set off by mown grass and contained by neat pathways and low clipped hedges. Usually designed to be seen from above, in our case from the raised terrace and the main reception rooms and bedrooms on the south side of the Manor. In the centre sits a magnificent fountain, originally made for an Italian palace in Colorno. The parterre was restored in 1994 to designs by Beth Rothschild. In 2000 Waddesdon won the Europa Nostra award for ‘the extraordinary re-creation with modern techniques of a major Victorian garden’.

To mark Remembrance, a large-scale art installation returns to the grounds at Waddesdon. The silhouettes of 400 life-size soldiers, sailors and airmen and 250 poppy wreaths will be displayed in the wider grounds at Waddesdon in a striking art installation, the largest Standing with Giants installation in the UK. A group is displayed on the hill on which the Manor stands. Together, they create a moving statement of commemoration, which offers space to reflect and connect within the natural landscape. The display is created in partnership with Standing With Giants, a community-based project which works to raise understanding and appreciation of our freedom and to remember and pay tribute to those who gave their lives so we could live ours today.

Protecting Asian wildlife and its habitat This family of elephants is brought to Waddesdon as part of a campaign to highlight threats to Asian Elephant habitats and the loss of biodiversity as humans encroach on elephants in the densely populated Indian subcontinent and around the world. They were made in Tamil Nadu, India by local craftspeople, from an invasive plant, Lantana Camara, dried and wrapped over steel frames. They are portrait sculptures of real, wild Asian elephants. The elephants have their own stories. Urned ('Hope', the tusker), travelled to Tamil Nadu from South India as his habitat disappeared. Philomena is a wise old matriarch who has protected her family from threats like road building and forest clearances. Baachcha, the calf, is still a baby and has to be coaxed by her mother to cross roads. The family is walking towards the Aviary, linking with Waddesdon's own conservation story. Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild built the Aviary in the 1880s, and stocked it with rare and exotic species. Today it is one of Europe's smallest licensed zoos and does important conservation work to support endangered bird populations, many in South East Asia, through captive breeding and reintroduction programmes.

Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild also created a cast-iron aviary, inspired by 18th-century pavilions at the Palace of Versailles and Château de Chantilly, as well as his childhood home at Grüneburg. It was completed in 1889. Like other members of his family, such as Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Ferdinand was also keen animal lover. He stocked the aviary with exotic birds and enjoyed feeding them for his guests. The aviary's paint and gilding were restored in 2003 and it now houses endangered species with a focus on breeding programs. It is a registered zoo.