We provide a unique and fascinating garden experience whatever your knowledge and interests. Our social and horticultural history, stemming from our founder, Arthur Kiplin Bulley, still informs what we do today.
Ness Botanic Gardens was born of one man’s passionate interest in plants and his desire to share that interest with others.
Arthur Kilpin Bulley, one of the greatest sponsors of plant collectors in the twentieth century, not only laid the foundations of Ness Botanic Gardens but changed the face of British gardening.
Born in 1861, Bulley developed a ardent fasciantion with plants, particuralry the hardier varieties and Alpine species. In 1898, Bulley bought farmland in Ness which he would go on to develop into a house and gardens. The house still exists to this day as Mickwell Brow and now houses office and event spaces.
In 1948, Agnes Lois or just Lois as she preffered be called, daughter of Arthur Bulley gifted the entire site to the University of Liverpool, after Arthur passed away peacefully in 1942.
Today, the commitment to maintain and develop the beauty of the Gardens remains, but there is an increasing emphasis on research, conservation and education of the public – areas reflecting Bulley’s original interests.
