Close the day by allowing your mind to quieten to the gentle sounds of the estate in the evening with Arthur Cole as he leads you up to the Roman Villa. The evening culminates with sundowners and charcuterie boards in the Garden Café.

Life carries with it a maelstrom of emotions, and more often than not it is too easy to get caught up in the machine of day-to-day existence without remembering the connection we have to the earth that supports us. This day aims to remind you of that connection through the simple processes of mindfulness.

The day begins with a wander into the woods and a simple breathing exercise and light meditation. You then are guided on how to sink into your surroundings through the process of 'forest bathing', otherwise known as 'shinrin-yoku' in Japan. Once you have re-connected with earth and the energy of the woodland floor, you are guided through choosing healing herbs to make your own personalised herbal poultice.

The day ends with lunch in the Botanical Rooms.

This summer, join us at the hotel any day of the week for Afternoon Tea on the Terrace.

Sit back on The Botanical Rooms terrace and sample a range of teas including Darjeeling First Flush ('the Champagne of teas'), Assam Mangalam or fresh garden mint.

To eat, there is a selection of delights devised by our chefs. Finger sandwiches with Stavordale cheddar or Dorset smoked tout, and sweet treats crafted by our Head Pastry Chef - cakes, macarons and of course, scones with jam and clotted cream. We'll also be showcasing seasonal cocktails by our bartenders, made using herbs, fruits and botanicals from the garden.

To work off your tea, the croquet lawn and badminton court will be set for you to try your hand at these quintessential afternoon games.

Afternoon tea on the terrace is served every day, in sittings between 3pm – 4.15pm. £26.50pp includes complimentary tea refills, with additional drinks available to order including cocktails, Champagne and sparkling.

Also includes complimentary access to the Gardens. Booking is essential.

Tea on the Terrace Menu 26.50 per guest

FINGER SANDWICHES Egg mayonnaise & garden leaves Dorset smoked trout & creamed horseradish Stavordale Cheddar & grape chutney

BUTTERMILK SCONES with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry & rose jam

SWEET Lavender caramel macaron Almond cake with Babylonstoren clementine & lemon verbena

_Served with your choice of _

Traditional Black Teas:

ENGLISH BREAKFAST A blend of the best black teas from Assam, Kenya & Sri Lankan

EARL GREY Sri Lankan black tea, red cornflowers & natural bergamot

DARJEELING - 1ST FLUSH Light, fruity & floral, the 'Champagne of teas'

'MARGARET'S HOPE'IDARJEELING - 2ND FLUSH Full of fruity notes & muscatel character, from the Himalayas

ASSAM MANGALAM Enticing caramel aromas, malty flavour & hint of spice

LAPSANG SOUCHONG Strong & smoky lapsang from Fujian province

Babylonstoren Teas:

HONEYBUSH It has a subtle herbal-floral taste, a slight sweetness & an alluring honey aroma

ROOIBOS Also known as Red Bush, this tea has an herbal and fruity taste and distinctive red colour

Wellbeing Teas:

CHAMOMILE

Rose petals are added to whole chamomile flowers with smoothing lavender, a floral blend

JASMINE PEARLS Green tea mixed with freshly picked jasmine

MAO FENG GREEN Soft, fresh, easy drinking, rich & subtly sweet with a great depth of flavour

FRESH MINT handpicked from our Stable Yard Garden

BLOOD ORANGE, TURMERIC & GINGER A fiery fragrant infusion, a citrus hit of blood orange with ginger root, infused with turmeric

DANDELION, CLEAVER & ROSE A slight bitterness of dandelion, softened by the calming warmth of fragrant rose petals

LEMON BALM, LAVENDER & ROSEMARY An uplifting infusion of fragrant Lemon balm, gentle Lavender & Rosemary

Dry stone building techniques can be applied to so much more than only walls. Works of art, garden features, ponds and fire pits can be made out of dry stone.

In this late summer workshop, master dry stone waller Tom Trouton leads you through how to build an excuisite fire pit. You shall be led through the principles, what to look for in the stone, and how to use the tools in the correct way. After working on your creation you will be able to relax with an indulgent lunch in the Garden Café.

All materials and equipment are provided.

Please wear steel-toe capped boots and sturdy clothes.

Includes: Tea & coffee on arrival with the Bakery’s signature cinnamon bun, ending with lunch at the Garden Café.

Join Lead Fruit Grower, Andy 'Apples' Lewis in the Parabola Walled Garden as he leads you through the late summer prune of our unique collection of 300 apple varieties.

You will be introduced to the techniques, skills and secrets used to train all manner of fruits including apples, plums, cherries, currants and gooseberries.

This is a rare opportunity to learn from our resident fruit expert (while scrunching on apples plucked by your own hand straight from the tree).

All materials and equipment are provided.

Please wear sturdy footwear and practical clothing.

Includes: Tea & coffee on arrival with the Bakery’s signature cinnamon bun, ending with lunch at the Garden Café.

Wake up with Arthur Cole as he leads you on a stroll along the hedgerows of the South Avenue before the rest of the estate awakes. The walk culminates in breakfast in the Garden Café.

The relationship between the garden and the kitchen is akin to a symbiotic one. The gardeners and chefs work closely together to plan the year’s seasonal harvests. This fresh produce deserves the finest send-off, so we send you off to harvest ingredients for your lunch with the gardener, while we set-up the picnic area above the wildflower meadow to have everything you need to cook your picked bounty over fire, creating inventive and delectable dishes with the chef.

The day begins with meeting our Head of Edible Gardens, Rose Szarowicz and Estate Head Chef, Alan Stewart, in the Wildflower Meadow, followed by a short journey to our Market Garden over on Avalon Farm. At the Market Garden we will meet the gardeners who have been cultivating and tending to the plants, picking alongside them to fill our trugs for lunch. Trugs filled to the brim, we head back to the main gardens to cook our harvested produce over open fire, culminating in an indulgent lunch picked and prepared by ourselves under the expert guidance of Rose and Alan.

All equipment and ingredients supplied.

Please wear sturdy footwear and practical clothing.

Includes: Tea & coffee on arrival with the Bakery’s signature cinnamon bun

Join Nursery Manager, Dominic McCartney, as he leads you through how to prune trees & shrubs. Pruning trees and shrubs correctly is essential to their healthy growth.

The day begins in the main gardens where you are led through how to prune and shape a selection of ornamental trees and shrubs.

All materials and equipment are provided.

Please wear sturdy footwear and practical clothing.

Includes: Tea & coffee on arrival with the Bakery’s signature cinnamon bun, ending with lunch at the Garden Café.

Close the day by allowing your mind to quieten to the gentle sounds of the estate. Join Arthur Cole as he leads you along the South Avenue’s hedgerow. The evening culminates with sundowners and charcuterie boards in the Garden Café.

In celebration of the Autumn Equinox and our Harvest weekend, it's the annual Deep South Somerset BBQ & Boil!

Inspired by the flavours of the Deep South and traditional country broils, think Crab, Corn and Cyder Chowder, butcher Lloyd's hotlink sausages, green tomato pickle and cornbread made with proper West Country cheddar. Accompanied by live music for dancing and hay bales for reclining.

Join us in the gardens for two days of live acts and the finest BBQ fare and seafood this side of the county. No booking necessary, valid Membership or Member's Guest Day Pass required for entry.

September is a wonderful month for grasses and dried seed heads in the garden. These beautiful forms can be brought into the home to create long-lasting displays. Heritage Garden Manager and Floriculturist, Maiko Ishida, will lead you through how to select and arrange different material to create late summer decoration.

The day begins with learning about the principles of working with dried plants and examples of arrangements. Next you select your materials and begin to create your displays. Throughout Maiko will be on-hand to offer assistance and advice to help you create the displays unique to you.

Includes: Tea & coffee on arrival with the Bakery’s signature cinnamon bun, ending with lunch at the Garden Café.

Wake up with Arthur Cole as he leads you on a stroll through the orchards before the rest of the estate awakes. The walk culminates in a warming breakfast in the Garden Cafe.

‘Planting and growing increasing numbers of trees is the scientific solution to Earth’s environmental dilemma.’ - Richard St. Barbe Baker.

Planting trees isn’t just essential to the health of the environment, it is remarkably rewarding for the soul. In this final Hort Course for the year, Head Gardener Stephen Herrington leads you through the correct way to plant trees.

The day begins with a trip to the nursery at Avalon where you are led through the fundamentals of planting and staking trees of different species and sizes. The second part of the day covers pruning a selection of different climbers and covers when, how and where to prune them.

All materials and equipment are provided.

Please wear sturdy footwear and practical clothing.

Includes: Tea & coffee on arrival with the Bakery’s signature cinnamon bun, ending with lunch at the Garden Café.

Make sure you visit this weekend during apple harvest season, for one of our favourite events in the Estate calendar.

‘Apple Day’, which actually falls on 21 October - the Friday before the weekend - was started in 1990 by Common Ground. Apple Day aims to raise “awareness not only of the importance of orchards to our landscape and culture, but also in the provenance and traceability of food” - these are philosophies that we at The Newt also hold dear. Plus, we really like an excuse to celebrate apples.

The weekend shall be a two-day celebration of all things apple; from juice pressing to apple games, displays, recipes, cyder tastings and tractor tours through the orchards. Expect live music and DJs, apple-themed menus as well as our ever popular hog roasting on a spit over fire for the carnivores!

Cyder is the blood that runs through the Newt’s veins, it carries within it the very essence of what the estate is about: Somerset, apples, responsible stewardship of the land, heritage, horticulture, experimentation, creativity and sensory experience.

Join the Cyder Team as they lead a workshop on cyder making. You will learn about the history of cyder making in Somerset, harvest the apples in the orchards, taste the different characteristics of some of our 70 different varieties of cyder apples, press your own juice by hand and start the cyder making process in a demi-john to then take home with you as well as a tasting pack of our own cyders.

Includes: Tea & coffee on arrival with the Bakery’s signature cinnamon bun, ending with lunch at the Garden Café.

Fungi is a fascinating kingdom. There are over 15,000 species of fungi in the UK alone. Some are edible, some are inedible and others can be deadly. However, the properties of fungi do not stop at the plate - this extraordinary group holds some of the answers to the beginning and evolution of life on this planet. They have medicinal uses, religious and ritualistic significance, economic weight, and folklore spanning back to times before the written word.

Join our fungi expert on a forage across the Estate, identifying fungi species and foraging different mushrooms. In the second part of the workshop, you learn how to sow your own oyster mushroom spores in straw to continue growing indoors at home and how to set your own shiitake dowels in logs to continue growing outdoors at home. We shall also offer our chefs top tips on how to cook and preserve your mushrooms at home.

Includes: Tea & coffee on arrival with the Bakery’s signature cinnamon bun, ending with lunch at the Garden Café.

Join Arthur Cole on an early morning walk through the trees. Learn more about these ancient parts of the estate - including how we manage our woodland, make charcoal, put up nesting boxes and strive to maintain and enchance a balanced woodland ecosystem.

The walk culminates with a seasonal breakfast in the Garden Café, as the rest of the estate wakes up for the day.

Join our Woodland Team for ‘A Day in the Woods’ we shall make charcoal and biochar using a traditional ring kiln and also explore the woodland living-networks and how to protect and conserve the wildlife that depend upon them. (We shall learn how to erect birdboxes at different heights for different species and how to make hibernacula for overwintering woodland creatures.) We will cover woodland craft and coppice hazel to make wattle fencing.

We advise wearing appropriate footwear and sturdy clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty.

Includes: Tea & coffee on arrival with the Bakery’s signature cinnamon bun, ending with lunch at the Garden Café.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! A time to wrap ourselves up and wrap presents for family and friends. Christmas cards aren’t only a way to reaffirm the bonds with our loved ones; making them from scratch offers you the time to pause during the busy festive season, creating something that will adorn their homes.

Enter Maiko’s Christmas craft grotto and learn how to make christmas cards. The second part of the workshop will teach you elementary calligraphy to then beautifully write your festive wishes.

Includes: Tea & coffee on arrival with the Bakery’s signature cinnamon bun, ending with lunch at the Garden Café.

Christmas decorations bring cheer into the home and often remind us of Christmasses past, as we unwrap those as old familiar favourites from the box. Creating your own decorations is mindful, rewarding and means they are particular and unique to you - which makes them priceless.

Join our Floriculturist and Heritage Gardener, Maiko Ishida, for a workshop that starts with a forage through the woodlands and gardens to gather natural materials, before using them to create a host of decorations.

Includes: Tea & coffee on arrival with the Bakery’s signature cinnamon bun, ending with lunch at the Garden Café.

Make this Christmas special, in true Somerset style. Pack up your finest wares and walking boots, and come spend the festive season with us. Our team have lined up a ho-ho-host of treats, experiences and exclusive dinners made to remember over a four-night stay, starting from either 23 or 24 December.

Our Christmas package includes:

• A festive minibar waiting for you in your room
• Breakfast each morning, including celebration breakfast on Christmas Day and extended brunch on Boxing Day
• Festive tea and cakes throughout stay
• Live music every day
• Druid Tree Walk with mulled cyder and mince pies
• Christmas Eve celebration dinner
• Christmas Day 5-course lunch with wine flight in The Botanical Rooms, followed by treats and nibbles throughout the house
• Festive hamper for you to enjoy in your room or one of our lounges on Christmas Day evening<
• Boxing Day celebration dinner

...enjoy all of this as well as our usual Estate experiences, daily tours, spa and shops.

See in 2023 with a party in the country. Enjoy a three-night stay - with a Secret Garden Party and our annual New Year's Day Croquet Championship.

Our New Year package includes:

• A stock of festive in-room mini bar treats upon arrival
• Breakfast each morning
• Guided Druid Tree Dusk Walk
• Three Course Dinner Friday 30th December 2022
• Secret Garden House Party on New Year’s Eve (No Under 14's)
• Champagne and Canape Reception
• Dinner in the Botanical Rooms with Wine
• Live Entertainment
• New Year’s Day Brunch
• 12 month Newt Membership

...enjoy all of this as well as our usual Estate experiences, daily tours, spa and shops.

Enjoy the garden after hours!

Garden Lates gives you the perfect luxury pitch to watch the sun set over the gardens, with a plate of something delicious and accompanied by live music.

Enjoy summer salads plucked fresh from the veg plot and our speciality BBQ prepared by our talented estate chefs.

View the menu below and click 'BOOK A PITCH' to secure your place. Then all you need to do is stroll up, sit back and sip a cyder or two.

Menu

Estate sourdough, olive oil, beetroot hummus & radishes

Cornish new potato salad, crème fraiche, capers, gherkin, dill Heritage tomato, olive oil

Oregano Summer bean salad, tarragon and black onion seed dressing

Weekly speciality BBQ

Somerset strawberries, whipped lavender yogurt, spelt crumble

Bath soft, chutney, spelt crackers

A half bottle of wine or Fine Cyder is included (1 bottle per couple) You can select your preference when booking

A full drinks menu will also be available at the Cyder Bar at additional cost

Vegetarian Option

BBQ'd aubergine, tahini, seed head dukka, coriander, coal baked Britany onion, Labneh, peas & pistachio

BBQ Speciality

9th June - Somerset Pork

16th June - Estate Beef

23rd June – South Coast Fish

30th June - Estate Lamb

7th July - Somerset Pork

14th July - Estate Beef

21st July - South Coast Fish

Note: Newt Membership is not required to attend Garden Lates. Guests are welcome to enter the gardens from 6.30pm and the gardens will close at 9.30pm (or when dark).