Westonbirt Arboretum to reopen to visitors using a new booking system

Forestry England has today announced that Westonbirt, The National Arboretum will be reopening to the public on Wednesday 3 June at 1pm.

However, in order to protect visitors, staff, volunteers and the local community, the arboretum has made some important changes to its day-to-day operations, by limiting the number of people it can welcome at any one time and introducing a new booking system.

For the foreseeable future, visitors and members of the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum will need to pre-book their tickets online before they come to site. Standard pricing will apply, however, Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum will be able to access their own tickets for free when they provide their membership number. If they wish to purchase additional tickets for others, standard charges will apply.

When booking their tickets, visitors and members will be asked to select an arrival time-slot. Time-slots will be every 20-mins, between 9am – 4:20pm every-day, with final entry at 4:40pm. Once in the arboretum visitors can stay for as long as they like, but visitors should be aware that the arboretum closes at 5pm.

Andrew Smith, Director of Westonbirt Arboretum, said:

‘We are delighted that we are now able to welcome visitors back to the National Arboretum. The past few months have been challenging and stressful for so many people, and we are thrilled to now be able to reopen our doors so people can come and enjoy this stunning landscape and magnificent collection of trees, and enjoy all the physical and mental health benefits that spending time in nature has to offer.’

This is one of a series of measures introduced at the arboretum to ensure social distancing can be observed onsite and to help protect visitors and staff. Others include closing some facilities such as the Welcome Building, play areas (including the Gruffalo Sculptures) and shop. Further information on new measures to safeguard visitor and staff safety can be found here.

Tickets are available to book here.