Today, I’d like to take you to a true hidden gem located near Cambridge, England: Wimpole Estate, a National Trust site with vast parklands and stunning interiors. I had the pleasure of visiting Wimpole Estate on a bank holiday Monday a few weeks ago, and I absolutely loved it. If you’re looking for ideas for a day trip near London or Cambridge, Wimpole Estate is a great place to go. On the way back, I also briefly visited Saffron Walden, a charming small town. Here is how the day played out.
Getting to Wimpole Estate
I usually take the train when I go on my solo weekend day trips, but this time, the trip was organised by a friend of mine who doesn’t mind driving. We rented a car for the day and drove to Wimpole Estate, which took us around 1 hour 25 minutes from Islington, London. Getting there on public transport would have been fairly complicated, as the Estate is located in the middle of nowhere.
I was stunned to see that the car park was absolutely huge, and almost entirely filled up. Wow! I hadn’t heard of Wimpole Estate until 2 days before the trip, but apparently, it’s a well known place.
Getting tickets for Wimpole Estate
We bought our entrance tickets on the door. There are cheaper tickets available for those who only want to wander around the vast green areas of the Estate, and more expensive tickets for those who want to view the interior spaces of Wimpole Hall and the farm. We opted for the latter and paid £20 each for standard adult tickets in May 2025. You can check out the ticket prices and opening times on the official website: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cambridgeshire/wimpole-estate.
Impressive interiors of Wimpole Hall
The Hall was close to where we entered the site’s premises, so we decided to start there. The rooms were beautiful!
Wimpole Hall is a country house, originally built in the 17th century, but remodelled several times in the following 2 centuries. I love seeing well preserved rooms and furniture from around the 18th century. Dining halls tend to be the most spectacular rooms in old castles and mansions, and it was no different this time. We also spotted an interesting detail around the fireplace: what we originally took for meticulously carved stone turned out to be a sculpture made of seashells. It was dark in that room and the photo doesn’t do it justice, but it looked incredible in real life.
I also loved the library room, with lots of antique books. Having a large house with a room like that has been a dream of mine since I was a child.
Wimpole Hall is pretty large, and there are plenty of rooms to see. If you ever visit Wimpole Estate, I definitely recommend getting the more expensive ticket that gives you entrance to Wimpole Hall.
A walk to the Wimpole Estate farm
Once we left the Hall, we headed towards the farm area. There were lots of pigs, as well as a few horses and some cows.
There was a pig feeding scheduled for 2:30pm and we had some spare time left, so we decided to grab some food in the cafe located in the farm. It wasn’t even that late in the day – around 2pm – but there was pretty much no food left. Surprising, given how popular Wimpole Estate is. A place with an enormous car park should probably be prepared to host a large number of visitors!
We had high hopes for the pigs’ feeding, scheduled for 2:30pm, but it was a bit disappointing. The 10 minutes before the actual feeding were funny ‐ the pigs seemed to know that the food was coming, and they were all incredibly noisy. Some of the huge pigs attempted to climb the walls of their pens, and I’ve never seen a pig standing on its hind legs before. However, the actual feeding was lackluster. The staff made all the visitors leave the central area of the pigsty, but then simply threw a shovel’s worth of pellets into each pen. The animals seemed ecstatic, but I expected more of a performance, perhaps one involving someone hand feeding the pigs fresh carrots or something. Oh well! I’ll just stick to London Mudchute Farm for the best farm experience.
If you’re visiting Wimpole Estate with kids, there’s a playground at the farm, near the cafe.
A stroll around the beautiful gardens
After the pig feeding, we left the farm and headed towards the flower garden. It was stunning! I love visiting traditional English gardens with a diverse array of colourful flowers. Late May seems like the perfect time to visit them. It was beautiful!
There is also a Gothic folly in Wimpole Estate, which we decided to skip in the interest of time. I could see it from a distance, but the round trip walk to the folly and back would have probably taken about an hour, and we had one more place to visit that day.
A quick visit to Saffron Walden
After leaving Wimpole Estate, we drove to Saffron Walden. I never knew that saffron, the most expensive spice in the world, used to be grown in the UK. Or, to be more specific, the flowers whose stigmas make saffron – saffron crocuses – were cultivated in Saffron Walden in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Nowadays, Saffron Walden is known for the old, colourful houses, mainly found on the roads around St Mary’s Church. It’s usually difficult to take a good photo on roads like that, as there are always cars parked along the pavement. The place is charming, though, and definitely worth a visit. I always wonder what it’s like living in a house that’s over 400 years old!
Whilst walking along the colourful houses, we spotted a sign for the Fry Art Gallery in one of the narrow alleys between the houses. It turned out to be a small, free-to-visit art gallery, and we happened to be there some 30 minutes before closing time. Perfect!
The exhibition displayed at the gallery during our visit was focused on artwork created by women who loved cats. Bit of a peculiar theme, but I loved it! As a fellow cat lover, I enjoyed the posters and sculptures of various cats.
Finally, we decided to have dinner before heading back to London. We checked Google Maps in search of nearby restaurants and picked one that looked the most appealing. We got there and were happy to see that it wasn’t too busy. In fact, it was pretty empty, and we soon found out why. The staff welcomed us and informed us that the restaurant had… run out of food! That was a first. Luckily, we managed to find a different place to eat, and after a satisfying meal, we drove back to London.
Also see:
Alphe's Corner 