Nine Farnham days out with checked 2026 prices, from a free 1128 abbey to £22.95 at Birdworld, plus the castle keep and the pond water you cannot use.
Every entry below was checked against the venue’s own website in August 2026, including the two that are not currently available. Farnham’s problem is not a shortage of things to do, it is that the most famous one is shut and the second most famous has a warning on it.
Start with what is closed
Farnham Castle Keep is currently closed to the public. English Heritage, which looks after the Norman keep on the hill above Castle Street, states plainly on its own visitor page that the site is closed and apologises for the inconvenience. There is no reopening date given.
English Heritage points visitors instead to Farnham Castle Trust, which runs the Bishop’s Palace below the keep. That building is a working weddings, events and private hire venue: its website advertises supper clubs, Jazz at the Castle and seasonal parties, but no general public admission, opening hours or tour price. If you want to go inside, book onto one of its events or ring 01252 720402 first. Do not turn up expecting a castle you can walk into.
Free, and open
Museum of Farnham
Wilmer House, 38 West Street, GU9 7DX. Open Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm. Admission free. A Georgian townhouse in the middle of town holding the collection of Farnham’s own history. It is a twenty-minute stop or an hour, depending on the temporary exhibition, and it is the only indoor free option in the town centre.
Waverley Abbey
Waverley Lane, GU9 8EP, about 1.9 miles south-east of the town centre. Free, open any reasonable time during daylight hours. This is the reason the borough is called Waverley: a small group of monks came from France in 1128 and founded the first Cistercian monastery in Britain here by the River Wey. What survives is substantial, including the 13th-century vaulted refectory built for the lay brothers. There is a small car park, and the ruins are roughly 350 metres away across a field, so wear something you do not mind getting wet.
Farnham Park
A few hundred metres from the top of Castle Street. 130 hectares, about 321 acres, free, always open. A medieval deer park roughly 500 years old, now managed by Waverley Borough Council, with ancient oaks, the one-kilometre tree-lined Kings Avenue, two playgrounds, a golf course, a cricket pitch, football pitches for hire, a café and public toilets. Tennyson walked here in 1853 and wrote that “the Park here is delicious”. It is the single best free half-day in Farnham and most visitors never find it.
Free to enter, pay to park
Frensham Great Pond and Common
Bacon Lane, Churt, GU10 2QB, about 4.3 miles south. Roughly 1,000 acres of heath and water owned by the National Trust and managed by Waverley, with a Green Flag award.
Read this before you go. Waverley Borough Council has confirmed blue-green algae in the water and asks people not to enter it. That notice was last updated on 23 June 2026 and was still in place in August. Check the council’s car park page on the morning you travel.
Even without the algae, the rules are tighter than most people expect:
- Swimming is only ever allowed at the Great Pond, inside the marked areas. There is no swimming at Frensham Little Pond at all.
- No paddleboards and no inflatables at either pond.
- No barbecues and no bonfires anywhere on site. This is dry heathland and the wildfire risk is real.
- Dogs are banned from the beach and barrow areas, and must be on leads across the site from March to August for ground-nesting birds.
Parking is £1.80 for an hour, £3.60 for two, £4.80 for four and £7.00 all day, by RingGo or card only, every day except Christmas Day. The car park opens at 8am and closes at 9pm, and there is a £60.90 charge to have the gate opened if you get locked in. The council’s own advice is that the car park is usually full by 10am in good weather, and that if it is full, the site is full. National Trust members park free by scanning their card at the machine near the office and café.
Alice Holt Forest
Bucks Horn Oak, GU10 4LS, about 3.7 miles south-west. Forestry England land, free to walk in, with the car park open 8am to 8pm and the café 9am to 4pm. There are Gruffalo and Room on the Broom sculpture trails, walking, running and cycling trails, a wellbeing trail, an easy-access trail, inclusive play areas, disc golf, a giant marble run running through six zones over a mile, Go Ape treetop and nets courses, and cycle hire.
Parking is the cost, and it moves with the season:
| Stay | Peak (weekends Apr-Oct, school and bank holidays) | Off-peak (weekdays Apr-Oct, weekends Nov-Mar) | Super off-peak (weekdays Nov-Mar) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early bird, out before 10.30am | £3.00 | £3.00 | £3.00 |
| Up to 2 hours | £6.50 | £5.00 | £4.00 |
| Up to 4 hours | £11.50 | £8.50 | £6.00 |
| All day | £15.00 | £12.00 | £9.00 |
A summer Saturday costs £15 to park; the same walk on a Tuesday in February costs £9, and £3 if you are out by half ten.
Worth paying for
Birdworld
Holt Pound, GU10 4LD, about 3.0 miles south-west. Adults 16 and over £22.95, concessions aged 60 plus and students £20.95, children aged 2 to 15 £22.95, under-2s free. Tickets bought on the day cost £2 more, so book ahead. Open 10am to 5pm in British Summer Time, until 4.30pm in winter, with last admission at 4pm; you choose a 10am or 1pm park entry and then use the indoor Play Barn whenever you like. Carers go free with a registered disabled guest. There is a Stagecoach stop right outside the entrance.
Birdworld is running reduced prices under the Government’s Great British Summer Savings scheme from 25 June to 1 September 2026; the discount shows when you select dates in that window.
Rural Life Living Museum
The Reeds Road, Tilford, GU10 2DL, about 2.5 miles south. Paid entry, with tickets and an annual pass sold on its own site. Open seven days a week from 1 April to 31 August, 10am to 4pm, then Wednesday to Sunday from 1 September to 31 March, and closed entirely from 24 December to 16 January. An ancient site filled with historic countryside buildings, rural machinery, cycles and fire engines, plus a working programme of adult courses in blacksmithing, natural ink making and the like. It also closes occasionally for private events, so check before you set off.
The Sculpture Park, Churt
Corner of Jumps Road and Tilford Road, Churt, GU10 2LB, about 5.0 miles south. £15 adults, £10 concessions, open 10am to 5pm every day. Ten acres of woodland and water gardens holding more than 600 large outdoor sculptures along a two-mile winding trail. Everything is for sale, so the display keeps changing. The park suggests allowing two to four hours; the paths are gravel woodland with slopes and uneven ground, so take boots.
Farnham Maltings
In the town centre, a few minutes’ walk from the Borough. A registered charity arts centre running live theatre, comedy, cinema, festivals, family shows and a heavy programme of craft and making workshops, from stained glass and modern calligraphy to willow weaving. Prices vary by event and some, such as the exhibition programme and valuation days, are free. It also runs the Museum of Farnham.
That craft programme is not incidental. Farnham Town Council describes the town as England’s first World Craft Town, and the Maltings is where most of that actually happens week to week.
A rainy afternoon in the town centre
Brightwells Yard, the redeveloped former East Street site, is now the wet weather answer: a six-screen Reel Cinema, plus Nando’s, Monte Forte and Pirate’s Landing, a Pilates studio and a gym, around landscaped public space. The multi-storey car park above it charges £1.10 for an hour and £10.00 all day, with 18 EV bays and a 1.9 metre height barrier.
Two things people get wrong
Birdworld and Alice Holt are not in Surrey. Both have Farnham postal addresses in GU10, and both sit inside the East Hampshire district, over the county line. It makes no difference to the day out, but it does mean they are outside Waverley’s parking rules, Surrey’s roadworks pages and this borough’s council entirely.
Frensham fills before most people have left the house. The council’s own guidance is to arrive early, and on hot days not to come at all. When the car park is full, the site is closed, and there is nowhere legal to leave a car on the surrounding roads.
Frequently asked questions
Can you visit Farnham Castle?
Not in the ordinary sense. Farnham Castle Keep is closed to the public, according to English Heritage’s own visitor page. The Bishop’s Palace beside it is run by Farnham Castle Trust as a weddings and events venue, and advertises private hire and ticketed evenings rather than general admission. Contact the Trust on 01252 720402 before travelling.
What is there to do in Farnham for free?
The Museum of Farnham (Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm), Waverley Abbey (daylight hours, any day) and Farnham Park (321 acres, always open) are all free with no parking charge in the town centre car parks on a Sunday. Frensham Common and Alice Holt Forest are free to walk in but charge for parking.
Can you swim at Frensham Great Pond in 2026?
Not at the moment. Waverley Borough Council has confirmed blue-green algae and asks visitors not to enter the water; the notice was updated on 23 June 2026. Even when the water is clear, swimming is only permitted in the marked areas of the Great Pond, never at the Little Pond, and paddleboards and inflatables are banned at both.
How much does Birdworld cost?
£22.95 for an adult aged 16 or over booked at least a day ahead, £20.95 for a concession aged 60 plus or a student, £22.95 for a child aged 2 to 15, and free for under-2s. Tickets bought at the gate cost £2 more.
What is there to do in Farnham when it rains?
The Museum of Farnham, the six-screen Reel Cinema at Brightwells Yard, the workshop programme at Farnham Maltings, and the air-conditioned indoor Play Barn at Birdworld, which you can use for as long as you like on a park ticket.
Is Farnham worth visiting for a day?
Yes, if you plan around the closures. A workable day is the Museum of Farnham and the Georgian town centre in the morning, lunch around The Borough, and either Farnham Park or Waverley Abbey in the afternoon, all of it free and all of it walkable or a short drive.
Related
- Farnham roadworks, parking and travel: where to park, and what is shut this month.
- Farnham train times to London if you are coming in by rail.
- Farnham house prices, area by area.
Sources
- English Heritage, Farnham Castle Keep for the closure notice and the referral to Farnham Castle Trust.
- Farnham Castle for the Bishop’s Palace as an events venue and the contact number.
- Farnham Town Council, Museum of Farnham for the address, opening days and free admission.
- English Heritage, Waverley Abbey for free daylight-hours access, the 1128 founding, the refectory and the car park.
- Farnham Town Council, Farnham Park for the 130 hectares, the deer park history, the facilities and the Tennyson quotation.
- Waverley Borough Council, Frensham Great Pond for the blue-green algae notice, the 1,000 acres, the swimming and barbecue rules, the car park hours and the tariff.
- Forestry England, Alice Holt Forest for the opening hours, facilities, trails and the three parking tariffs.
- Birdworld FAQs and plan your day for ticket prices, opening times and the summer savings dates.
- Rural Life Living Museum opening times for the seasonal opening pattern and address.
- The Sculpture Park for admission prices, daily opening, the ten acres, the 600 sculptures and the two-mile trail.
- Farnham Maltings for the current programme, and Farnham Town Council for England’s first World Craft Town.
- Waverley Borough Council, Brightwells Yard for the cinema and commercial units.
- Distances are straight-line from the centre of Farnham to each venue’s published postcode, calculated from postcodes.io.
Prices, opening hours and safety notices change. Every one above was checked against the venue’s own website in August 2026; confirm before you travel.
Have your say
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