The terraced gardens at Rivington were created in the early twentieth century by William Hesketh Lever, the soap magnate who built Port Sunlight and became Lord Leverhulme. Lever bought Rivington Pike and the surrounding hillside as a private retreat and commissioned a series of Japanese-inspired gardens cut into the steep wooded slope, incorporating waterfalls, pools, bridges, pergolas, and a Japanese lake garden with a replica of a Liverpool castle. The whole ensemble was designed to be discovered gradually as you walk uphill through the trees.
After Lever's death the gardens were neglected for decades and largely swallowed by the woodland, which gives them their current character — a semi-ruined landscape of stone steps leading nowhere, arched bridges over dry channels, and pergola pillars strangled by ivy. Restoration work has been ongoing since the 1980s, and large sections are now accessible and legible, though the interplay between the designed structure and the encroaching forest remains the most atmospheric thing about the place. Marked paths lead through the main terraces; a printed leaflet available at the car park helps locate the key features.