Garden Museum Literary Festival 2026: Melbourne Hall

Save the date! The next Garden Museum Literary Festival will take place at Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire, on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 June 2026, hosted by the Marquis and Marchioness of Lothian.

Join us for two days of conversation and inspiration, with talks by garden designers, writers and makers, with plenty of relaxed time to explore the gardens at Melbourne Hall in between.

About Melbourne Hall

With sweeping lawns, charming avenues, and captivating vistas, Melbourne Hall is a true treasure of early 18th-century English garden design.

It was laid out by Rt. Hon Thomas Coke, Vice Chamberlain to Queen Anne, with help from the garden landscape designers George London and Henry Wise in the formal style. It is noted for its long tunnel of Yew, its wrought iron arbour created by Robert Bakewell and its statuary by Jan van Nost, notably the Four seasons monument, a gift from Queen Anne.

The Marquis of Lothian took over running the Melbourne estate in 1987. His wife the Marchioness of Lothian is a painter of both portraits and landscapes. Her passion for gardening has developed the garden at Melbourne in many ways. Her eye for colour and detail means that the Melbourne garden is a haven of delightful and unusual specimen trees, shrubs and herbaceous borders.