In Charleston and looking for the best plantation tours? Don’t look further than the Historic Charleston Tours!

Middleton Place National Historic Landmark is home to the most important, oldest landscaped gardens in America. The historic site today encompasses 110 acres, including Eliza’s House, Stable yards, House Museum, and Gardens. Together they tell the holistic history of all who worked, lived, and died here. The stories of the Middleton family, comprising two founding fathers and many enslaved people, are intertwined with the property. At our Charleston, SC, plantation tours, we offer you plenty of opportunities to experience those stories!

These manicured landscaped gardens have greeted visitors from all across the planet for more than two centuries. Learn about the lives and work of the enslaved Africans through live demonstrations, visit the heritage breed livestock in the stable yards, and stroll through huge garden rooms. Historic Charleston Tours reveal centuries-old stories of people, both enslaved and free, who participated in the stewardship and building of this American icon.

Why visit Middleton Place Plantation?

In 1741, Henry Middleton envisaged and started creating the Gardens, which now reflect the magnificent, elegant style that remained in vogue in England and Europe into the early part of the 18th century. The principles of Andre Le Notre —the man who laid out the Palace of Versailles and the gardens at Vaux-le-Vicomte — were followed. Surprises, focal points, vistas, balance, geometry, as well as rational order were all part of the garden design.

The original gardens of Henry Middleton comprised allées or walkways, which were planted with shrubs and trees, trimmed to appear as green walls that partitioned off bowling greens, green arbors, and small galleries. Ornamental canals were designed with mathematical precision, and sculptures were placed at the end of long vistas. New surprises and changes in elevation were created at every turn.

Reflecting the chic symmetry of 17th-century European design, the Middleton Place Gardens has a gorgeous geometric plan that includes reflection pools, parterre gardens, and sculptured terraces descending to the Butterfly Lakes.

As your licensed guide, Mike discusses four generations of the Middleton family and the role they played in American history. The craftspeople in the stable yards recreate plantation activities of the low country plantation of the early 19th and the whole of the 18th century.

3-Tour Tour

$125/person

(Admission Not Included: Admission to the plantation not included, however you will receive a discounted rate if you book with Historic Charleston Tours.)