Large Visitor Attraction of The Year
Words: The Alnwick Garden
We did it! We won Large Visitor Attraction of the
Year at the inaugral Northumberland Tourism 2017
Awards.
Shortlisted with Whitehouse Farm, Stannington,
Alnwick Castle and Kielder Water & Forest Park, The
Duchess of Northumberland was delighted that The
Alnwick Garden Trust and The
Alnwick Garden won the prestigious award.
Attracting tourism from around the world, UK and
the region, Northumberland is now a top visitor
destination.
The Duchess of Northumberland said “I began
working on The Alnwick Garden over 21 years ago
and it hasn't always been easy. There have been many
good and bad times. I've often thought it's been like
a steeple chase - you clear a big hurdle only to find
there's another one waiting for you to jump. You fall,
get knocked back and have to pick yourself up, dust
yourself down and get going again. In the early years
people with much more experience than me would
say 'the most difficult part of your task is going to be
raising the money you need to build and then
keeping a team of difficult designers, each convinced
they are irreplaceable geniuses, working together.
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They were wrong. Without a shadow of doubt the
most difficult thing for me has been handing what
I've built over to others to run. I'm the first to admit
that my standards are sometimes impossibly high but
I believe that it's better to aim high than low. We're in
the business of giving people a good day out and that
means genuinely caring about every minute our
visitors spend in The Garden. It’s about enhancing
lives”.
It has been a top priority to give visitors a reason to
keep on coming back to The Alnwick Garden and
one of the greatest successes has been the number of
events taking place at The Garden and there is a
constantly changing schedule of activities almost
daily throughout the year. Some events include Paw
Patrol - our last visit broke visitor records in 2016
and Peppa Pig. The latest addition is the
Adventure Golf, a brand new golf installation
designed by The Duchess and planted by Trevor
Jones that has a magical theme, with tunnels
challenging players as they make their way round the
course and attracting even more families.