Herstmonceux Castle is renowned for its extraordinary gardens. Outside the castle's perimeter are walled gardens, some of which may possibly date to Tudor times. The tilled flowerbeds, hedgerows, orchards and garden plots were carved incrementally out of the woodlands which once surrounded the Castle, and which once stretched all the way to the sea.
Today's gardens are primarily places of leisure and repose - lovely decorative landscapes, designed and maintained for the pleasure and enjoyment of visitors. But in earlier centuries, many of the gardens had a more utilitarian role, supplying fresh fruits, vegetables, kitchen herbs, and medicinal plants to the Castle households.
As the gardens shifted from a functional to a decorative role, stone pathways were added to improve access for visitors. Throughout the Castle's twentieth century renovations and restorations, estate owners Claude Lowther and Paul Latham worked to formalize the gardens. Deep floral borders were established along the garden walls. In Lowther's time, a stone pathway was established between the yew hedges in the Elizabethan garden north of the Castle. The formal lines of the path and hedgerows were softened by loose, pretty plantings which created a mist of colour to surround the shrouded ruins of the era.
The central stone pathway of the gardens is surrounded by vast expanses of lawn that were established during Latham's tenure in the 1930s. The pathway enhances the thematic divisions of the various gardens, protects the lawns, and keeps visitors from having to walk on muddy paths.