A Lovely Day Out at Castle Groeneveld

We’ve been having gorgeous spring weather in the Netherlands the past few weeks, and my mother-in-law asked me if I wanted to go out one day with her to a castle she likes to visit and walk around the grounds. We had a lovely day out exploring the castle and surroundings, so here is a post all about visiting Castle Groeneveld so that you can also do so!

About Castle Groeneveld

Castle Groeneveld (or Kasteel Groeneveld in Dutch) is located on the outskirts of the town of Baarn, in the province of Utrecht. While it’s called a castle it’s actually an 18th-century estate, of the kind often built for wealthy city dwellers as a summer residence. The park surrounding the buildings was originally constructed in the Dutch Baroque style but was later restructured into what you can see today, an English garden landscape with lots of water features and winding paths. It’s a very popular area for people to walk, especially with their dogs!

What to do at Castle Groeneveld

Most visitors to Castle Groeneveld do exactly what we did on our visit; follow the winding paths around the estate for a lovely scenic walk, often with their dogs. We saw a lot of dogs on our visit, who were having a lovely time splashing into the water and chasing sticks or balls!

The castle is also a popular place for weddings. One was even held on the day of our visit, and my mother-in-law’s next-door neighbours also got married here years ago! However, because of this, we couldn’t really explore the castle’s interior, but I guess that just means we need to go back again. We were able to have a look at the basement-level part of the museum, where there was an interesting exhibition of books made from wood that was originally donated to the University of Leiden in 1809 by King Louis Napoleon. There were also some cute dioramas of the castle and we could look at the historic kitchen.

There’s a grand café in (and outside) the former couch house where visitors can have lunch or just a coffee and some cake. Behind here there also seemed to be a playground for children although I forgot to go and have a look. There are also guided tours of the castle and grounds (weather permitting) on weekends (€8.50 for adults) although I am assuming they’re in Dutch.

The estate also holds regular events which you can check out here, including an upcoming one called “Bark in the Park” for dogs which looked very cute. I also didn’t realise until after our visit that there are lots of little gnomes apparently hidden on the grounds and that there’s a treasure hunt booklet for children that you can purchase to help find them… I guess that’s another thing for me to do on my next visit!

There are two walking routes around the castle grounds. We meant to do the shorter 2.5km one but accidentally did the longer 6km one instead, but it was very nice. Even though it’s popular there were stretches where we saw no other people, just listened to bird songs and enjoyed the beautiful flowers that were in bloom.

Getting to Castle Groeneveld

The easiest way to reach Castle Groeneveld is by car as there’s a free car park right near the entrance. You could also use public transport and catch a train to Baarn, then get bus 573 from the train station to Draakenburgerweg bus stop, which is right near the park entrance. The castle and grounds are closed on Mondays and during special events, which you can find on the website. It does cost money to explore the main castle interior, but it’s free to explore the grounds and basement as we did. You can also check out the café’s website here.

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Have you ever visited Castle Groeneveld? Let me know in the comments what it was like or if I’ve missed any other highlights, or pin one of these if you want to plan your own visit for the future!