Norfolk


<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/Untitled-design-5.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-66189" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/Untitled-design-5.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/Untitled-design-5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/Untitled-design-5-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/Untitled-design-5-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<p>As an ex-Londoner, one of the great discoveries for me of living in Norfolk, has been finding how much can be gained just by spending time in nature. How it can lift and shape your mood in a second. How it provides an instant reminder of its own power and your own insignificance. How it can provide an anchor in a world that is increasingly fractured and frenetic. It&#8217;s a realisation that has provided me with a fresh perspective on life and it’s one that lies at the heart of my new memoir, <em>My Life in a Garden</em>. Here are seven green spaces that, in their different ways, have played an important part in that discovery:</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-walsingham-abbey-gardens"><strong><a href="https://www.walsinghamabbey.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WALSINGHAM ABBEY GARDENS</a></strong></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="591" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Walsingham-snowdrops.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-31452" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Walsingham-snowdrops.jpeg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Walsingham-snowdrops-300x177.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Walsingham-snowdrops-720x426.jpeg 720w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Walsingham-snowdrops-768x454.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Walsingham-snowdrops-888x525.jpeg 888w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>I’m very attached to this place for nostalgic reasons. When my late wife and I first moved to Norfolk we lived in Great Walsingham, and this was a favourite Sunday Walk. I like the simplicity of it, it’s modesty. It’s not spectacular for much of the time (simple paths, no great vistas) but when it bursts into life in early spring with its snowdrops and slightly later, its daffodils, they somehow have an even greater impact because of that. The gardens have a special sense of peace and calm about them too, perhaps because of their connection to the surrounding village that has been a pilgrimage site for hundreds of years. It’s the kind of place you can wander round or just sit in and feel instantly restored.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-walled-garden-at-holkham-hall"><a href="https://www.holkham.co.uk/visit/the-walled-garden/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>THE WALLED GARDEN </strong>AT <strong>HOLKHAM HALL </strong></a></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1125" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/52680520800_82ce4c3569_k.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-66294" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/52680520800_82ce4c3569_k.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/52680520800_82ce4c3569_k-800x600.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/52680520800_82ce4c3569_k-1000x750.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/52680520800_82ce4c3569_k-768x576.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<p>I’m a big history buff, which is partly why many of my favourite green spaces are attached to grand old houses or estates. This is six acres of walled garden that was originally laid out by Samuel Wyatt during the late 1700s. I love the different parts of it – there are Georgian / Victorian greenhouses, there’s an ornamental garden, a vineyard, a kitchen garden, an exotic garden and a cutting garden. It’s like being in a gallery and walking past a series of the most beautiful pictures. It’s so perfect, just a privilege to be there and to see what man’s love of nature and enterprise has created.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-houghton-hall-and-gardens"><strong><a href="https://www.houghtonhall.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HOUGHTON HALL AND GARDENS</a></strong></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="666" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2022/09/Houghton-Hall.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-35137" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2022/09/Houghton-Hall.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2022/09/Houghton-Hall-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2022/09/Houghton-Hall-768x511.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2022/09/Houghton-Hall-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>I’m a big art fan too, so these epic gardens which regularly provide the backdrop for some wonderful sculpture shows are another favourite. Just by themselves they are amazing; you get views you rarely get anywhere – long tunnels between avenues of trees, huge fields which just seem to disappear off into the horizon and high hedges that go on for ever. The sense of scale is amazing and makes you feel gloriously overwhelmed. Add in the sculpture of someone like Richard Long who creates work from natural, found objects – vast slate circles, huge, jagged crosses of flint and chunks of wood like giant shrubs – and you have something very unique indeed.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sheringham-park"><strong><a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/norfolk/sheringham-park" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SHERINGHAM PARK</a></strong></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/andrew-hall-7ZiENfjeh3w-unsplash.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-66292" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/andrew-hall-7ZiENfjeh3w-unsplash.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/andrew-hall-7ZiENfjeh3w-unsplash-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/andrew-hall-7ZiENfjeh3w-unsplash-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/andrew-hall-7ZiENfjeh3w-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<p>This has everything – woodland, parkland, a wild garden, some amazing wildlife, beautiful flowers, immense trees, vast shrubs, stunning coastal views and on top of all these, its own signature speciality &#8211; banks of dazzlingly colourful hydrangeas. This for me is a place to reconnect with the energy of nature – to literally experience its vitality coming up through the soles of your feet as you stroll round this magnificent early 19th century Humphrey Repton designed park. After a walk here I feel like a car that’s just been filled with petrol &#8211; I’m ready to go, all over again.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-felbrigg-hall-gardens-amp-estate"><a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/norfolk/felbrigg-hall-gardens-and-estate" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>FELBRIGG HALL, GARDENS</strong> &amp; ESTATE</a></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="666" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2024/02/daffodils-felbrigg-norfolk-credit-national-trust-images.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48705" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2024/02/daffodils-felbrigg-norfolk-credit-national-trust-images.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2024/02/daffodils-felbrigg-norfolk-credit-national-trust-images-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2024/02/daffodils-felbrigg-norfolk-credit-national-trust-images-768x511.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>This place also has nostalgic associations &#8211; in years past it was one of our favourite family walks at Christmas. I always think of the great chats we’d have en route and there is something magical about the way that this place seems to liberate conversation. It’s as if the gloriously natural space – not overly sculpted or tended to &#8211; produces something similar in those walking through it. I love the variation it has as well, a wonderful mixture of winding woodland paths, a walled garden, a glorious lake, an icehouse, dramatic skies and even a second-hand bookshop to finish it all off. What more could anyone want?&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-cliff-top-walk-from-weybourne-to-sheringham"><strong><a href="https://www.visitnorthnorfolk.com/dbimgs/Weybourne%20to%20Sheringham%20via%20Norfolk%20Coast%20Path%20Norfolk%20Trail.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">THE CLIFF-TOP WALK FROM WEYBOURNE TO SHERINGHAM</a></strong></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="907" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/harry-borrett-tbjXIqLyJi0-unsplash.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-66291" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/harry-borrett-tbjXIqLyJi0-unsplash.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/harry-borrett-tbjXIqLyJi0-unsplash-800x484.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/harry-borrett-tbjXIqLyJi0-unsplash-1000x605.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2025/04/harry-borrett-tbjXIqLyJi0-unsplash-768x464.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<p>I was born in Brighton, and I’ve always loved the roar of waves crashing onto the shore (it’s one of my top three sounds along with 50s jazz and a Gaggia coffee machine in full flow). This walk is all about that sound. That, and the amazing wind that blows you off your feet. It is an exposed, very rugged path along the clifftops. There is a group of houses near the edge about 10 minutes in, that I always think of as being the setting for some atmospheric murder mystery. The views on both sides throughout the walk – out to sea and back inland &#8211; are never less than spectacular. And when you’ve finished the whole thing, it feels like you’ve undergone some kind of extreme treatment &#8211; like a visit to an East European Banya. This is nature in its most powerful and elemental. Wonderfully invigorating and inspiring. &nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-holme-beach"><strong><a href="https://www.explorenorfolkuk.co.uk/holme-beach.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HOLME BEACH</a></strong></h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="666" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Holme-next-the-sea.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-31372" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Holme-next-the-sea.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Holme-next-the-sea-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Holme-next-the-sea-720x480.jpg 720w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Holme-next-the-sea-768x511.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/norfolk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/12/Holme-next-the-sea-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>An undiscovered gem in North Norfolk. Huge, sandy expanses and no one there. Completely uncommercialised with no kiosks or outlets near the beach so the most natural of natural spaces. A 4000-year-old bronze age timber circle was discovered here, and the whole place has a wonderful sense of permanence, a feeling that it has been here a long time and will remain far into the future. It’s a reminder too, of our own insignificance in the face of nature’s overwhelming strength.</p>



<p><strong><em>Want to know more about Carl? We chatted in-depth about his new book, My Life in A Garden, which you can read <a href="https://norfolk.muddystilettos.co.uk/life/people/muddy-meets-carl-gorham/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>, and you can grab yourself a copy <a href="http://bit.ly/MyLifeInAGarden" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.</em></strong></p>


My favourite green places: author, Carl Gorham

You may also like