King Alfred’s Tower - a prominent landmark on the Stourhead Estate, near Mere in Wiltshire - is set to open its doors this month on its 250th anniversary.
Image credit - John Miller
The tower - which closed at the beginning of the pandemic - will now be open every weekend from Saturday, 23 July until Sunday, 30 October, between 11am-3pm.
Jo Flye, Visitor Operations and Experience Manager at Stourhead said: “It’s really exciting that we can finally open King Alfred’s Tower this year. 2022 also marks 250 years of the tower proudly overlooking three counties, like a watchful guardian at the boundary of the world-famous garden at Stourhead. It’s very special to tie in the reopening with such an occasion.”
At 160 feet high, King Alfred's Tower offers far reaching views across the Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset countryside to those who make it up the 225 steps inside the triangular tower.
The surrounding countryside also offers the public woodland walking routes across the Stourhead Estate.
The National Trust team explain that King Alfred’s Tower was designed by Henry Flitcroft, the same architect who designed Stourhead’s iconic temples.
It was said to be the vision of Henry Hoare II ‘the Magnificent’, creator of Stourhead’s landscape garden. The tower commemorates the accession of George III to the throne in 1760 and the end of the Seven Years War. It is named after the legendary Saxon King, Alfred the Great, who according to legend raised his standard there is 878 AD.
Admission to the tower is free for National Trust members.
Admission charges for non-members are: adult £5, child £2.50, family £12.50, family one adult £7.50.
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