The gardens and wider grounds contain much for the visitor to explore.
The Quiet Garden and churchyard
The Quiet Garden, adjacent to the old churchyard, is on the site of the ancient priory church. This area is full of spring bulbs and blossom, with a magnificent small-leaved lime tree at one end and a curved bench at the other. Between the Quiet Garden and the churchyard, a curving path is lined with nerines and sedum later in the year. The graveyard is also a good place to find a quiet spot and is grown as a meadow with mown paths.
The borders around the house
From the front of the house you can look across the ha-ha into the park and watch the sheep, often a peaceful place to sit in the evening. Nearer to the house, the meadow grass is full of lady’s bedstraw and other wildflowers.
In 2023 and 2024, the borders along the back of the manor house between the chapel and the dining room were widened and replanted with around 1,200 plants almost all propagated onsite in the walled garden and glasshouses.
From the house, you can look across the sunken garden and the long border to the cedar tree and its swing. Bulbs here and under the huge copper beech flourish in the early part of the year, giving way to annuals and herbaceous perennials in the foreground in summer.
The Summer House
On the other side of the path that leads to the walled garden are more specimen trees – a walnut and a Wellingtonia – and the Summer House. Resident and day guests can ask in Reception for the key to the summer house if they would like to sit there.
The Orchard Meadow
Behind the Stables is the orchard meadow and the Shepherds’ Huts. Guests can walk around the orchard but the Shepherds’ Huts are private and for the use of the retreatants that have booked them, and members of our resident community live on the far side of the orchard so we ask that you respect their privacy also.
The Walled Garden
The walled garden is both a productive and an ornamental space and is something of a suntrap. Many of our guests love walking around to see what is growing or like to pause on a bench in this more enclosed space. With the help of many volunteers, we grow potatoes, leeks and other vegetables for the kitchen outdoors and tomatoes flourish in the glasshouses. At the entrance and around the central pond, there are summer flower borders.
The Woodland Walk and the Calvary
The woodland walk wanders through the copse outside the walled garden where snowdrops edge the bark path in spring, and owls and badgers can be surprised at dusk. The path passes ‘the Calvary’, a statue of Jesus on the cross, hidden in the trees where there is a bench for contemplation.
The Way of the Cross
The Way of the Cross is a self-guided walk in the grounds. Pick up a guide in Reception and follow the trail past 15 crosses, designed by the artist for the ‘stations of the cross’ and complemented in the guide by the sonnets of Malcom Guite.
The Labyrinth
On the far side of the walled garden – accessed most easily through it – is the labyrinth. Walking the path of a labyrinth is a form of prayer that has been used for centuries. Some ideas for walking the labyrinth as a spiritual practice can be found in Reception.
The Outdoor Worship Area and Fire Pit
Near the Labyrinth, the Outdoor Worship Area is used by groups for just that, often around a lighted fire, using logs from wood cut in the grounds. It is also a good place for individual guests to sit on the rustic benches for a while, under the trees, on the edge of the wider landscape.
The Stables Pond
Outside the front of the Stables, the semi-wild pond, probably one of the monks’ stew ponds reflects the trees that line it, deep green in summer and golden in autumn. It takes water from the springs on the slopes of the parkland, so after rain you can hear the water running in and then out under the Abbey garden towards the River Chater in the valley below. We are not sure of the age of the well next to it but, mysteriously, the water level is deeper than the level of water in the pond.
surrounding parkland
Regarded as one of the most attractive and unspoilt areas of countryside in Eastern England, the parkland surrounding Launde Abbey (all 450 acres of it) is rich in rolling hills, pasture, small streams, woods and ponds. Perfect for walkers and ramblers. Visitors can find a number of circular walks with maps on request in Reception.
