Hestercombe will be taken over by all things bee this summer!
Come up and join us in our mission to become bee savers with our exciting new trail and activities to learn more about the fantastic world of bees. Help us to support the wonderful (and important) variety of native bees in the UK.
Our Time to Bee Friendly trail is available all day throughout the summer holidays. Walk a family-friendly route around our beautiful, and nature-filled, gardens, stopping at bee-formation trail boards to learn useful facts and bee-rilliant jokes! Look out for pictures of different native bees and bee-friendly flowers in the garden to note in your log book and put them to use for bee spotting in our gardens.
Each trail booklet includes a bee friendly prize at the end - which you can collect at the plant centre.
Don't forget to add your piece of bamboo (included with the trail) to help us build a solitary bee hotel over the summer. This will become a permanent structure in our gardens so when you return to Hestercombe you can see if any bees have taken up residence.
As you walk the trail, stop in at our learning hive based in the Octagon Summer House, the sensory bee cave by the Orangery Lawn and then on to Hestercombe House to play your part in creating a giant beehive sculpture.
Check out our What's On page for other bee events such as a free waggle dance session (weather permitting) for all of the family and free badgemaking (both Monday to Friday).
Prices & tickets
The Time to Bee Friendly trail is FREE when paying standard garden admission (Hestercombe members go free).
Admission tickets are available via the Hestercombe website.
Please note that Hestercombe House will close at 5pm daily.
