Nottingham gives you an Elizabethan mansion on a hill, a castle on a sandstone crag, and a nature reserve of flooded gravel pits that goes molten at sunset — all inside the city. These are the ten locations I would actually book, and what each one needs from you.
10 Stunning Outdoor Photography Locations in Nottingham
Nottingham is built on sandstone, and that single fact shapes everything about how it photographs. The rock is warm, honey-coloured and holds light beautifully in the evening — which is why the castle, the Lace Market and half the older buildings in the city all glow at the same hour when other cities have gone grey.
Whether you are planning a pre-wedding shoot, portraits, family photographs or portfolio work, these ten outdoor photography locations in Nottingham run from Elizabethan grandeur to industrial brick to open water. Each entry has what makes it worth the trip, a working Google Maps link, and a practical note on light and access.
1. Wollaton Hall and Deer Park
- Unique features: A spectacular Elizabethan prodigy house of 1588 standing on a rise in 500 acres of deer park, with free-roaming red and fallow deer, a lake, formal gardens and a camellia house. It stood in for Wayne Manor in The Dark Knight Rises.
- Photographer’s note: The most photographed building in Nottinghamshire and it earns it. Shoot the hall from the south-east in the last two hours of light, when the stone turns gold and the facade gets side-lit rather than flat. The lake below gives you the reflection shot. Deer are wild animals in rut through October and November — keep real distance then.
- Maps: View on Google Maps
- Keywords: Wollaton Hall photography, deer park photo shoot Nottingham
2. Nottingham Castle and Castle Rock
- Unique features: A ducal mansion on the site of the medieval castle, standing on a sheer sandstone crag above the city, with terraced grounds, gatehouse, caves in the rock beneath and Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem built into the cliff at the foot.
- Photographer’s note: The terrace gives you the best elevated city view you can reach on foot in Nottingham. The real photograph, though, is from below — stand on Castle Road and shoot up at the crag with the building on top for genuine scale. Admission applies for the grounds, so check current opening and pricing before planning around it.
- Maps: View on Google Maps
- Keywords: Nottingham Castle photography, castle photo shoot Nottingham
3. Attenborough Nature Reserve
- Unique features: A series of flooded former gravel pits beside the River Trent, now a wetland reserve with lakes, reed beds, causeway paths, wildfowl and enormous open sky.
- Photographer’s note: The best sunset in Nottinghamshire, without argument. Water on both sides of the causeway means the low sun is reflected twice and the whole scene turns copper. Arrive forty minutes before sunset because the good light moves fast here. Paths are flat and easy, but there is no shelter at all, so it is a fair-weather location.
- Maps: View on Google Maps
- Keywords: Attenborough Nature Reserve photography, sunset photo shoot Nottingham
4. The Lace Market and Hockley
- Unique features: The Victorian heart of the world lace industry — tall red-brick warehouses, narrow cobbled lanes, iron railings, arched windows and St Mary’s church rising out of the middle of it.
- Photographer’s note: The strongest urban location in the city and the most consistently underused. The lanes are narrow enough that you get soft reflected light bouncing off brick for most of the day rather than harsh sun. Broadway and the streets around St Mary’s are the pick. Weekend evenings get busy with the Hockley bar crowd — shoot before six.
- Maps: View on Google Maps
- Keywords: Lace Market photography, Nottingham urban photo shoot
5. Highfields Park
- Unique features: A landscaped park beside the University of Nottingham with a long boating lake, a Japanese-style garden, a lido building, bridges and the Trent Building rising above the water on the far bank.
- Photographer’s note: The Trent Building reflected in the lake is the classic Nottingham frame and it is genuinely lovely in the morning, when the building is lit and the water is still. The Japanese garden is a small, enclosed alternative if it is windy. Free, central and easy to park near, which makes it my default for a short session.
- Maps: View on Google Maps
- Keywords: Highfields Park photography, university lake photo shoot Nottingham
6. Newstead Abbey
- Unique features: Lord Byron’s ancestral home — a medieval priory front standing as a roofless Gothic screen against the house, set in gardens with lakes, a Japanese garden, a fernery, waterfalls and cascades.
- Photographer’s note: The west front of the priory is one of the most striking single structures in the Midlands: a tall ruined facade with sky behind the tracery. Shoot it late in the day when the light comes through the empty window and separates it from the building behind. The Japanese garden gives you an entirely different look ten minutes’ walk away. Admission applies.
- Maps: View on Google Maps
- Keywords: Newstead Abbey photography, Gothic ruins photo shoot Nottinghamshire
7. Nottingham Arboretum
- Unique features: The city’s oldest public park, opened in 1852, with a bandstand, an aviary, a lake, the Chinese Bell Tower with its Crimean War cannons, and a genuinely remarkable collection of mature specimen trees.
- Photographer’s note: A small park that punches far above its size because of the trees. The circular walk gives you a dozen different canopies in fifteen minutes, and autumn here is the best colour in central Nottingham. The bandstand is a useful covered frame in light rain. Ten minutes’ walk from the city centre, so it pairs neatly with the Lace Market.
- Maps: View on Google Maps
- Keywords: Nottingham Arboretum photography, autumn photo shoot Nottingham
8. Old Market Square and the Council House
- Unique features: One of the largest public squares in England, dominated by the Council House with its dome, Corinthian portico and pair of stone lions. Fountains, terraced steps and open space in the middle of the city.
- Photographer’s note: The portico is the best classical architecture in Nottingham for portraits, and the columns give reliable open shade even at midday. The lions are a Nottingham institution and worth including for local resonance. Genuinely busy from mid-morning onwards; early Sunday is the only time you will get the square close to empty.
- Maps: View on Google Maps
- Keywords: Old Market Square photography, city centre photo shoot Nottingham
9. Bestwood Country Park
- Unique features: Former colliery land turned country park, with woodland, meadow, the Alexandra Lodges, and the extraordinary Victorian Winding Engine House — an ornate Gothic pithead building unlike any other industrial structure in the county.
- Photographer’s note: The Winding Engine House is the reason to come, and it is the single most unusual backdrop on this list — Gothic detailing on a piece of heavy industry. Almost nobody shoots portraits here. Combined with the surrounding woodland you can get industrial and pastoral in the same session, which is a rare pairing.
- Maps: View on Google Maps
- Keywords: Bestwood Country Park photography, industrial heritage photo shoot Nottingham
10. Colwick Country Park
- Unique features: Two large lakes beside the River Trent on the eastern edge of the city, with woodland, meadows, a marina and long open water views. Colwick Hall sits on the edge of the park.
- Photographer’s note: The most spacious water location close to the centre and considerably quieter than Highfields. The tree line along the western shore gives you filtered evening light across the water, and the sheer openness means you can put a couple against nothing but sky and lake. Exposed to wind off the Trent, so check the forecast.
- Maps: View on Google Maps
- Keywords: Colwick Country Park photography, lakeside photo shoot Nottingham
Planning your Nottingham shoot
Two locations per session is the right number. The Lace Market and the Arboretum are a ten-minute walk apart and give you brick and canopy in one afternoon. Wollaton Hall is big enough to be a session on its own. If you want the best light of the day, end at Attenborough — nothing else in the county competes at sunset.
The sandstone point is worth repeating, because it changes how you plan. Nottingham’s stone is warm rather than grey, so it takes evening light far better than it takes morning light. If you have one good hour, spend it at the castle crag or on the Lace Market brick, not in a park.
Nottingham is a short run for Cameraboss from our Leicester base and sits well inside our Midlands coverage alongside Derby, Leicester and Birmingham. We work as luxury and documentary photographers and were named Creative Photographer of the Year at the Creative Industry Awards 2024. As a British-Nigerian photographer I take real care exposing and grading for darker skin tones — metering for the skin rather than for a bright sky or a pale stone facade, then grading frame by frame instead of applying one preset across a gallery. See finished work in the client galleries, browse editorial and pre-wedding sessions, check session and wedding pricing, or see the areas we cover across the UK.
Common Questions
A: Walking the deer park with a camera is free and unrestricted. Booked portrait and wedding sessions on the grounds normally need arranging with the venue first, and there is a charge for car parking.
A: Attenborough Nature Reserve, comfortably. Water on both sides of the causeway doubles the light. Colwick Country Park is the second choice and is usually quieter.
A: The Lace Market, where the narrow lanes and deep doorways give shelter and wet cobbles actually improve the frames. The Arboretum bandstand is a useful backup in a light shower.
A: The view from the terrace is the best you can reach on foot in the city, and the crag from Castle Road below is dramatic and free to shoot. Check current opening times and admission before building a session around the grounds.
A: Two hours for one location, three for two nearby ones. Wollaton, Newstead and Attenborough all involve real travel from the centre, so treat each of those as a session in its own right.
Ready to plan your Nottingham photo shoot?
Tell us which of these locations appeal and we will tell you when the light is best there, how long to allow, and what to do if the weather turns. No obligation, no hard sell.
