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The Historic Dovecote of Athelhampton House & Garden

Updated: 6 days ago

Winter rests over Athelhampton’s gardens, and the old stones of the historic dovecote keep their silence. Despite its quiet, the gardeners carry on working around this ancient building. Secateurs whisper through thorn and stem, each careful cut placing faith in a season yet to come.


A photo of the roses trained over the slightly mossy stone walls of the dovecot, with bare stems and no leaves or flowers yet showing
A variety of Roses, carefully trained by the gardening team, covering the old stone walls of the Dovecote

With pared back borders, and a soft grey sky above, it would be easy to think the garden sleeps. But beneath the soil and within stems, the growth is already beginning. And winter pruning is a quiet promise to summer. From these bare stems will come abundance, and when the roses climb again in clouds of bloom around the dovecote, every flower will be the result of hard work on these bleak days.


Two photos, contrasting the dovecot in winter and summer. A cylindrical stone building with a conical tiled roof, on the left hand side it is shown covered in bare stems, with bare trees and grey skies behind it. On the right, it is covered in flowering pink roses, surrounded by blue skies and greenery.

A side by side comparison of the Dovecote in the winter and summer

Athelhampton is open to everyone every day. In February, RHS members can visit our gardens for free all the way through February.

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