The Elizabethan Gardens: Closed Every January, and Nobody Tells You

Where

Manteo, NC

Cost

$12 adult (13 and over), $8 youth (3 to 12), free 2 and under, $5 per dog

Season

Open year round except the whole of January. February to 19 November, Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Time needed

An hour and a half at a walk, longer if you sit down, and you should

Good for

Gardeners, anyone travelling with a dog, and a hot afternoon that needs shade

Address

1411 National Park Drive, Manteo, NC 27954

The plan was a two acre garden showing what a successful colonist might have planted, if the colony had succeeded. What got built instead is ten acres of formal garden holding Renaissance Italian statuary that came within one phone call of going to the Metropolitan Museum.

The idea started in 1950, with a group standing at Fort Raleigh watching The Lost Colony. The Garden Club of North Carolina took it on in 1951 and leased the land for ninety nine years. Then a contractor in Fayetteville mentioned that he was dismantling garden statuary on the Whitney estate in Thomasville, Georgia, and that Mr Whitney was thinking of giving it to the Met. It came to Roanoke Island instead: an Italian fountain and pool with balustrade, a wellhead, a sundial, birdbaths, stone steps and benches, all of it older than Elizabeth I.

The gift was so far beyond the original ambition that the design had to be torn up and started again. Innocenti and Webel of New York were brought in to draw the replacement. Construction began on 2 June 1953, the day Elizabeth II was crowned, and the Gardens opened on 18 August 1960, the 373rd anniversary of Virginia Dare's birth.

What the ten acres actually hold

This is a garden of rooms rather than a long walk. The sunken garden is the formal centrepiece, parterre hedging around the Italian fountain, and it is the part that photographs the way people expect a garden on this coast not to.

The statuary is the reason to slow down. A monumental bronze of Queen Elizabeth I stands under the trees, and the marble figure of Virginia Dare by Maria Louisa Lander is set on her own in the shade a short way off. Between them sit the Whitney pieces, which are the genuinely old things here and are easy to walk straight past because nothing shouts about them.

Because it is planted for succession rather than for one big display, there is no bad month to come except the ones when it is shut. Annual colour goes in every season on top of the permanent horticultural collections.

It is not Fort Raleigh, and that costs people money

These two share an entrance off National Park Drive, and visitors mix them up every single day.

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is federal and free. The Elizabethan Gardens is a private 501(c)(3) sitting on ten acres inside the park boundary, and it charges its own admission: $12 for ages 13 and over, $8 for ages 3 to 12, free for 2 and under. The Lost Colony outdoor drama is a third separate organisation on the same site with its own tickets again.

Knowing that in advance turns a confusing afternoon into a good one. Park once, walk the free earthworks and the Hariot trail at Fort Raleigh, then pay to go through the garden gate. Our Fort Raleigh guide covers the free half.

One more thing that genuinely sets this place apart: a dog is $5 and welcome. Almost nothing else you pay to enter on this coast will take one. Read their dog policy first, but if you are travelling with a dog and looking for something to do that is not the beach, this is close to the only paid option.

Hours, the January problem, and the sound shore

The address is 1411 National Park Drive, Manteo, and the number is (252) 473-3234.

In 2026 the Gardens run February to 19 November, Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. After the time change on 2 November they close at 4 p.m. daily.

Now the parts that ruin trips. The Gardens are closed for the entire month of January. From 20 November to 29 December daytime general admission stops completely, and the only way in is WinterLights on select evenings from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. They are also shut on Thanksgiving and on 24 and 25 December. So a winter visit is either an evening lights ticket or nothing, and in January it is nothing.

Two smaller traps. Last tickets are sold an hour before closing and last entry is 45 minutes before, so turning up at ten to five in July does not get you in. And tickets are non refundable unless the Gardens close, which includes closing for forecast winds above 35 mph. On this coast that is a real forecast, not a formality.

Walk to the far edge before you leave. The property runs down to the sound, and two brick pillars stand out on the shoreline there, the remains of an old pier that erosion has taken apart. It is the least manicured thing on the property and it tells you more about where you are standing than the hedges do.

Hours, dates and prices are set by the Gardens and change, so check the official admission page before you drive over.

Common questions

How much does the Elizabethan Gardens cost?

$12 for ages 13 and over, $8 for ages 3 to 12, and free for children 2 and under. A dog is $5. Members go free. The last tickets of the day are sold an hour before closing and the last entry is 45 minutes before, so a late arrival can be turned away even though the gate is still open.

Is it open in winter?

Partly, and this is the thing to get right. It is **closed for the whole of January**. From 20 November to 29 December the daytime general admission stops altogether and the only way in is WinterLights on select evenings, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. It is also closed on Thanksgiving and on 24 and 25 December.

Can you bring a dog?

Yes, for $5, which makes this one of the few paid attractions on the Outer Banks that will let your dog in at all. Read their dog policy before you go.

Is this the same thing as Fort Raleigh?

No, and people mix them up constantly because they share an entrance off the same road. Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is federal and free. The Elizabethan Gardens is a private nonprofit on ten acres inside the park boundary and charges its own admission. You can do both in one trip and you pay for one of them.

How long does it take to walk?

About an hour and a half if you keep moving. The layout is a loop of garden rooms rather than one long path, so it is easy to cut short and easy to stretch out.

Why is there ancient Italian statuary on Roanoke Island?

A gift, and nearly a Metropolitan Museum acquisition instead. A contractor dismantling statuary on the Whitney family's Greenwood Estate in Thomasville, Georgia, tipped off The Garden Club of North Carolina in the early 1950s. The fountain, pool, balustrade, wellhead, sundial, birdbaths, steps and benches that arrived predate Queen Elizabeth I, and they were substantial enough that the garden's whole design had to be redrawn around them.