The Mediterranean Garden at Beningbrough Hall in North Yorkshire is a newly created, climate-resilient garden designed by award-winning landscape architect and garden designer Andy Sturgeon. The garden opened in the summer of 2024 and is part of a wider project to rejuvenate the estate’s eight-acre garden.

These photographs were all taken in August 2025, so exactly one year after the garden was opened – giving it an opportunity to settle and begin to fill out. Spring and summer of this year where unseasonably hot and dry, exactly the sort of the weather the garden was designed to cope with, although ideally not before the plants had been given an opportunity to establish! However the only casualties appeared to be one or two of the yew hedge plants – everything else seemed to be doing well.

The garden covers an area of over 2,000m2 and fills the gap between the formal walled garden and the hall itself. Formally a large expanse of mainly grass, the garden is now composed of a series of low York stone walls and gravel paths. There is a rill pond with stepping stones across which is an instant draw with visitors.

My favourite part is the way the garden integrates with the tall red brick walls that defines its Northern border. Combining with a group of cypress trees to add to the Mediterranean feel.

It was a baking hut sunny morning when I photographed the garden which definitely added to mediterranean feel. If you fancy a visit yourself, I’d strongly suggest a visit on a hot sunny day to get the ultimate experience, although you may be more likely to get the place to yourself to enjoy the peace and quiet a grey and rainy morning!

You can find out more on the National Trust website here, and if you are a garden designer working in Yorkshire and across the UK looking for a photographer – please do get in touch.