Walks and Tours at Rufford

With so much history on offer here at Rufford Abbey there is lots to see and learn during your visit and there is no better way to do so than by taking part in one of our history tours.

Join one of our rangers on a whistle stop tour as they condense over 870 years of history into a short walk around the abbey ruins surrounding the site and the scheduled ancient monument. 

This walk involves steps and uneven surfaces so is not suitable for wheelchairs, pushchairs or people with mobility issues. 

The walk lasts approximately one hour and fifteen minutes, simply meet our guides outside the tourist information point when you are looking to start.

Alternatively you can make use of our guidebooks, visitor display signs or even our mobile application to guide you around and help impart the fascinating story that Rufford Abbey has to tell.

For your young ones, we also have this fun Crafty Critters Trail you can try while exploring our site! 

Perhaps the main attraction at Rufford for those with a love of the outdoors is our fantastic Wilderness Woodland.

This forested area is crossed by a number of informal crushed limestone paths, allowing you to truly lose yourself in the splendour of the countryside. These woods have been known as The Wilderness at least since 1725 and today are a wildlife sanctuary and the home of most of our common woodland mammals, including foxes and squirrels, and a wide range of woodland birds.

The woodland is primarily a shady area and can be fantasically varied depending on the season; beautifully accompanied by bluebells during spring, whilst the path edges are covered and obscured by leaves during autumn and winter.

You can also catch sight of our famous 'Ice Houses' while exploring the woodland, constructed in the 1820s in order to help the inhabitants of Rufford Abbey preserve food.