Tag: gardens

Two wet days in Alnwick

On By Carol HenshawIn Books, bookshops and libraries, England1 Comment

When we booked accommodation several weeks ago to spend a couple of nights in Alnwick, we had no idea that Storm Babet would be with us. It was forecast to be much more severe further north so we set off in heavy rain and some high winds that eased once we were south of Berwick upon Tweed. Leaving the A1 and heading into the town, the first thing we came to was Alnwick Garden. The staff there said that the rain had ceased at 9am. The garden was created by the Duchess of Northumberland in 2001 and is a registered charity which does a lot for the local community. A flower arranging talk was underway during our visit. The entry passes through a modern building which holds the shop and café.

As you enter you are opposite the large fountain.

There are smaller fountains in the surrounding woods

and statues plus items for Halloween which was only a couple of weeks away.

Many plants have ceased flowering but there were white roses

hydrangeas

and autumn leaves.

There is a pond with some ducks.

Along the side were some very large redwoods.

There is also the small but deadly Poison Garden filled exclusively with around 100 toxic, intoxicating, and narcotic plants. The boundaries of the Poison Garden are kept behind black iron gates, only open on guided tours so we took one.

The first plants we saw were nettles and hellebores but there were others in cages

and a giant hogweed which had been beheaded.

On the rear wall were tiles identifying some of the most serious poisoners in Britain.

On leaving the garden the rain had returned so we drove down to Barter Books which we had last visited several years ago.

The shop was opened in 1991 in what was the second station in Alnwick. It was built in 1887 to replace the smaller one built in 1850. The station closed in 1968 during the Beeching cuts. Barter Books is one of the largest secondhand bookshops in Britain with over 350,000 books in a wide variety of subjects plus DVDs, CDs, LPS and maps. I found another volume for my New Naturalist collection. There is food available: a buffet and an ice cream parlour plus a children’s room and plenty of seating.

A model train runs around a track above the front of the shop. It was raining heavily when we left so we checked into our accommodation and relaxed. The following morning was windy but drier so we walked into town. We passed the Tenantry Column which was erected in 1816 by the tenants of the second duke of Northumberland thanking him for his reduction of their rents during the post-Napoleonic Depression. It is a Doric column standing 83 feet tall and surmounted by a lion en passant, the symbol of the Percy family.

Alnwick was a market town dating back to the 7th century. It developed considerably after the castle was acquired by the Percy family in 1309.  After Scottish raids, a high wall was built around the town with four gates of which only two remain. One has been turned into a holiday home after having been rebuilt in gothic style in 1768.

Several medieval churches were constructed over time too including the church of St Michael. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the town was an important staging point on the Great North Road and many inns and pubs were opened to accommodate and feed travellers. Textiles and leather were important industries here and other crafts including rope making and fishing tackle were common. The castle is now the second largest inhabited one in the UK and is currently the home of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland. Harry Potter movies were filmed there. We were going to visit the castle but due to the adverse weather a lot of it was closed and tours were cancelled so we decided to leave it for another time. There were several tour buses parked outside the one gate that was open so I could not even take a photograph. We popped into a café for coffee and looked in a few shops including the other secondhand bookshop in town.

The rain returned so it was time to get back inside. It was due to ease off the next morning for our journey home.

Amisfield Walled Garden

On By Carol HenshawIn East Lothian, Flowers. plants & treesLeave a comment

Amisfield Walled Garden lies on the outskirts of Haddington. It is part of an estate that was acquired by Francis Charteris in 1713. It had previously been New Mills Cloth Manufactory which had been acquired by Colonel James Stanfield in 1681 who built a mansion called Newmills House near where Haddington Golf Club is situated today. Francis Charteris renamed the estate to Amisfield in memory of his ancestral home near Dumfries. His grandson who became the 7th Earl of Wemyss, built a new mansion house of red Garvald stone which was started around 1755. Later it was extended, the park constructed and in 1783, the walled garden was built over eight acres of land and with walls up to 16 feet in height. When the family later moved out, the park was rented out from 1881. In the First World War the house was used as an officers’ mess and the grounds for training soldiers. The house developed dry rot and was derelict until a local builder, Richard Baillie who had built Herdmanflat hospital bought it, demolished it in 1928 and used the stone to build a hospital in Haddington and Preston Lodge School in Prestonpans. The park was sold to East Lothian Council in 1969 and it is now leased to the Amisfield Preservation Trust who have turned it into a working community garden, run by volunteers and allows visitors free of charge. There are circular buildings at each corner

and diagonal avenues with apples and other trees.

Around the edge are borders with flowers. In September it is mostly the late flowering ones

including Japanese Anemones

and Amaranthus caudatus also known as Love lies Bleeding.

There were pumpkins almost ready to harvest.

The volunteers have a greenhouse and polytunnel which they use to grow fruit and vegetables to sell.

Some old gates gave a view to other derelict buildings in the park.

We wandered around, enjoying the flowers and had a chat with some of the volunteers who were juicing apples. There is a cafe supplying drinks and cakes but we continued to enjoy the flowers before it was time to leave.

On the way out was a tree laden with berries. It will certainly be worth returning in different seasons.

Glenarm Gardens to Torr Head

On By Carol HenshawIn Beaches, Flowers. plants & trees, IrelandLeave a comment

While in Northern Ireland to visit James’s parents we took some time out to explore a little of the nearby coast. Glenarm Castle has quite a traumatic history. The McDonnells came to Glenarm from Scotland in the late 14th Century when John Mor MacDonnell married Marjory Bisset, who was heiress to the Glens of Antrim. They first built Dunluce Castle and then Glenarm. The first castle was situated where Glenarm village is now. The one on the present site was built in 1636 by Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim in 1636. Six years later it was burned by a Scots Covenanter army who were attacking the Royalist McDonnells.  It remained ruined for 90 years. The Antrim estate covered 330,000 acres of the county and the family built a wing onto the ruin to live in when they were visiting. In 1756 it was rebuilt along with the lime tree avenue and the gardens. In 1813 other changes were made including a Barbican gatehouse. In 1929 a fire devastated the main block and the following reconstruction was not thought to be very good, having lost some of the original features. The 13th Earl of Antrim married a professional sculptor in 1939 and she added sculptures and decorations. Another fire in 1967 destroyed a wing but the old kitchen survived as the only room in continuous use since the 18th century. The garden opened to the public in 2005 after restoration. The castle remains private and hidden by trees from the garden. As it was coffee time we stopped for one at the tea room which is in what was the old mushroom house. On our exploration of the gardens, we first passed the Potting Shed which is a cafe with outdoor seating and a stage.    

The first part of the garden was the vegetable garden which had a wall covered with fig trees.  

We then wandered around the 4 acre walled garden which was built in the 1820s.    

There are several sculptures including this one  

and a woodland walk behind.

Closer to the entrance are several shops and a mini Landrover riding field for children. Current businesses on site are an organic salmon farm, organic shorthorn beef herd, farming and hydroelectric enterprises. On leaving Glenarm we headed down to the coast road where there are views over the bay and harbour.

We then continued northwards through Carnlough and stopped for lunch on the Garron Road.

The coast road was constructed to provide relief work during the Great Famine of 1845-1848. Many abandoned cottages are left after the mass emigration. After the plantation: tenant farming families had very small portions of land, barely enough to sustain them and the famine finally finished their time here. At Cushendall we had a wander along the beach

and the harbour  

where Mallard ducks were sleeping  

before an ice cream at the Corner House Inn. We noticed that many of the hedges in the area are made of fuchsia, a South American plant. It provides shelter for livestock and some insects including the Elephant Hawk Moth feed on it. Heading towards Torr Head, we stopped at Coolranny which overlooks Loughan Bay.

The  woodland gorges and hills are owned by the National Trust and there are views over to Kintyre 12 miles away; Sanda Island and Ailsa Craig. We will be in Kintyre and closer to the islands in September on our next van trip. Torr Head has a Coast Guard station built in 1822 which was a signal station for shipping.

In addition to some street art  

you can climb to the top of the building for views all around.

The large, ruined building on the road side was accommodation for off-duty coast guards. The station was burnt down by the IRA in 1922 who thought the British forces might use it as a base and was then abandoned.

Round Britain: Gruinard Bay to Inverewe

On By Carol HenshawIn Beaches, Flowers. plants & trees, Scotland2 Comments

Yesterday evening I had a short walk on the beach at Laide

Where a seal was sitting on one of the rocks.

The next morning was another quiet day.

After picking up supplies in Aultbea we walked to the pier

where there are views over to the Isle of Ewe.

Back on the A832 we passed Drumchork. Loch Ewe distillery was the smallest legally operated distillery in Scotland founded in November 2005 by John Clotworthy, the hotelier of the Drumchork Lodge Hotel in Aultbea and started its business in 2006. It lasted until 2015 when it was put up for sale, closing in 2017.  On a hillside further on was a viewpoint looking over Loch Ewe and an MOD pier and associated property.  After the Soviet Union was invaded by the Nazis in 1941, Loch Ewe was one of the Arctic Convoy shipping points to send supplies to the Soviet Union for the next four years.

The next viewpoint overlooked Loch Thurnaig.

We then entered Inverewe and visited the Gardens. Despite lying on the same latitude as Moscow and Hudson’s Bay, the Gulf Stream enables an amazing variety of plants from all over the world to grow.

Inverewe Garden was created by Osgood Mackenzie. His forbears were the lairds of Gairloch. It is said that he saw the barren peninsula and decided to build a garden there after acquiring the property in 1862. His first job was to plant a shelter belt of trees against the west and south-westerly winds. 15-20 years later other trees, including non-natives were planted. He had to import soil from Ireland. The first rhododendrons were acquired around 1890.  Osgood died in 1922 and is buried in Strath churchyard. His daughter took over the estate. His and her plant inspiration came from their many worldwide travels. Eventually the garden was given to the National Trust for Scotland. We began by exploring the walled garden.

Although in September many of the flowers, shrubs and trees have gone to seed, some were still in bloom.

There was a sculpture entitled Sheltered Existence by James Parker in 2014.

The house was built in 1937.

Some of the rooms are left as they would have been in Osgood’s daughter’s time.

Also on the ground floor is The Sawyer Gallery. The exhibition when we visited was by Pamela Tait and Erland Tait who are visual artists from The Black Isle and the Highlands respectively. Pamela’s work is in watercolour and monoprints.

We then walked around the forest and saw many different trees including eucalyptus

tree ferns from Tasmania

and Californian Redwoods.

On 30 January 2022, Storm Corrie with 90mph winds, felled 60 trees and destroyed 90 large shrubs. Work is still going on to deal with this. There is a jetty from which boat trips are run.

It had begun to rain so we walked back to the café to top up the caffeine levels and then it was time to check into our campsite which was just down the road. Before we had some quite torrential rain, I looked at the view across Loch Ewe.

Ballyrobert Gardens

On By Carol HenshawIn Flowers. plants & trees, Ireland1 Comment

Ballyrobert Garden is close to Ballyclare in County Antrim, Northern Island. It Is a family run affair, open to visitors and a Royal Horticultural Society Partner Garden which the owners try to blend into the local surroundings, both horticulturally and culturally. They cite influences on the garden design and philosophy from Vita Sackville West, Christopher Lloyd and Irish-born William Robinson, author of The Wild Garden and others.

The garden contains an extensive collection of plant varieties; over 4000 at last count.

It began as a small farm around 300 years ago and existed in that form until the present owners came along in 1994 and started to dig beds and add trees. Then it became a garden, a nursery, and a small farm. The site was quite rich in wildlife and had a bit of history. After a lot of thought they planned to garden in a way to fit the local landscape being as careful as possible to blend their love of gardening with the rich built and natural history of the site. The entrance to the property in 1994 consisted of a nondescript tubular gate. A search of the local area soon revealed what a traditional entrance ought to look like and so they copied the design for the pillars and the gate.

We began our walk around along the woodland walk

where autumn crocuses were beginning to emerge.

And some fungi in the grass.

The lake was very dry and empty of water after the recent hot, dry weather.

In normal times dragonflies, reed buntings and wagtails can be seen there. There are several bridges across the streams in the garden and this stone one has nest boxes built into it.

The station lawn has its name because there once was a station across the road. The gate from the front garden leads through to it.

The old hay shed is now reception and it and the other buildings are close to the front garden.

Behind the buildings is the nursery

which grows plants which they sell.

I was interested to see for the first time, discounted mis-labelled plants.

There are many wonderful plants in the garden and although it was a little too windy for macro photography, I did manage to catch a couple of insects on some of the flowers.

The rowan trees had ripe berries on them.

It has been suggested that the warmer weather due to climate change might bring autumn colours and leaf drop sooner. We had a coffee in the self-service cafe before we left. I was delighted to see one sculpture amongst the foliage.

In another area an earthenware pot sat beside some of the trees and plants.

It would be interesting to return in different seasons.

RHS Garden Bridgewater

On By Carol HenshawIn England, Flowers. plants & treesLeave a comment

I have been a member of the Royal Horticultural Society for many years and visit their gardens if I am in the vicinity. The newest is RHS Bridgewater in Worsley, Salford, Manchester. We stopped off on our last trip down south. You do have to book visits but the booking lasts for the whole day and you can arrive whenever you want and stay for as long as you like. We arrived mid-morning in July.

The historic 154-acre Worsley New Hall estate was turned into the RHS Bridgewater Garden to improve and enrich Salford’s communities and environment. Worsley New Hall, in its formal landscaped gardens, was a notable residence in the 19th century. It was built for the 1st Earl of Ellesmere between 1840 and 1845, designed by the architect Edward Blore – whose speciality was Tudor and Elizabethan-style architecture, and whose reputation was for completing projects on time and to budget. This project cost just under £100,000 to build, which is the equivalent of around £6.7 million today. The estate sat northwest of the current garden.

Worsley New Hall was a British Red Cross Hospital during the First World War and afterwards the house and garden declined. In the Second World War parts of the hall were requisitioned by the War Office and its gardens used as training grounds by the Lancashire Fusiliers. In the 20th century, a fire and dry rot led to the hall falling into disrepair. In 1943 a scrap merchant bought it for £2,500. Subsequently, the grounds were used as a garden centre, a Scout camp and a rifle range. There are still some old buildings in the garden.

We began by walking around the walled gardens after passing the learning centres on the way.  Weston Walled Garden is divided into two: the Kitchen Garden

and the Paradise Garden.

I enjoyed photographing some flowers.

North of the walled gardens are two glasshouses, one devoted to fruits

and one to Mediterranean plants.

There is a pollinator meadow

and Moon Bridge Water.

The Chinese Streamside Garden is under construction and should be completed in three years.

The garden is surrounded by a forest with an arboretum to be developed in future.

There is also a lake which will have future development. I will definitely return in a different season.

A Meander around Melrose

On By Carol HenshawIn Scotland, Scottish BordersLeave a comment

The Melrose Sevens rugby competition has been running since 1883. Our friends in Inverness were coming down for it and had a spare ticket so James joined them for most of the matches on the Saturday running up to the final. I spent the time wandering around the town which lies on the River Tweed at the foot of the Eildon Hills. I had not visited it since 2016.

A new (old) railway to the River Tweed

The Sevens are a big event for the town and a pipe band were playing in the High Street.

I then spent some time in Priorwood Garden. It was originally part of an abbey estate, the kitchen garden for a large house and a market garden in World War II. It has belonged to the National Trust for Scotland since 1974.
It covers 2 acres in total and was the first garden in Scotland devoted to the cultivation of flowers for drying and preservation. It has an orchard with more than twenty varieties of apples.

I had an appointment to visit Melrose Abbey at 2pm. The guy at the entrance said that he had seen a number of ‘rugby widows’ on that day.

It is not possible to go inside the building at present because there is a huge backlog of surveys and repairs to damage underway in many historic buildings. The abbey was founded around 1136 by the Cistercian Order and originally had fairly simple architecture. The original church was destroyed by the English army in 1385 leaving only one wall remaining. The large nave was built around 1400 and is in a grander and more ornate style.

In the grounds is a museum which has many relics from the abbey and a list of all the abbots.

There were also relics some from Newstead which was known as Trimontium in Roman times relating to its position at the foot of three Eildon Hills. There is a museum devoted to this in town but like many businesses was closed for the Sevens. My next stop was Harmony Garden.

The house was built in 1907 and gifted to the National Trust for Scotland in 1996. It has a kitchen garden and glasshouse

and in summer the fruit and vegetables grown are sold from a trolley at the main gate. I enjoyed the flowers and some of last years seeds still hanging from trees and shrubs.

I then had a river walk along the banks of the Tweed, crossing the chain bridge.

Some of the riverside walks and the bridge are part of the Southern Upland Way.

Eventually it was time to meet up with my friend, have something to eat and to return home in the evening.

Journeys into the past

On By Carol HenshawIn Art & Architecture, Books, bookshops and libraries, Family history, IrelandLeave a comment


My grandmother seemed to decide that I was to be the family archivist in the 1970s. She gave me a large number of photographs, letters from the First World War front that two of my great-great uncles fought in and letters from a relative in the USA to my great grandmother. Her father came from Ireland. A cousin had done some work on part of the family tree and this was passed onto me. Over the years I filled in many of the gaps and with the help of relatives, and the ever-increasing availability of information on the internet, now have got back as far as 1588 with the exception of the Irish relatives. James is from Northern Ireland so on a recent trip to visit his family we decided to delve further into his family tree as we had relatively little information. The major problem with Irish records is that so many public records were destroyed in the 1916 Easter Uprising. Volunteers have been digitising church register information and other information is already online. Our first step was talking to relatives, finding out if there was a family bible which often had names and dates of birth of all family members (there was not one) and then visiting the various graveyards where we were told some ancestors were buried.

In total we visited four and on the next rainy day I will start to plot out the tree and double-check what we have.

Mountstewart is an estate that used to be the home of the Marquess of Londonderry but is now under the care of the National Trust. We had been there previously so had a quick look at the house and devoted the rest of our time to the garden. Our last visit was late summer so this time it was good to see tulips and Tree Peonies blooming.


A range of animal sculptures sit along the top of the garden wall. This pig is one of them.

Across the road there are views across Strangford Lough.

On our last day we decided to pay a visit to Derry, a city neither of us had visited previously. The 400-year-old city walls stand up to eight metres high and are almost one mile around, making them the most complete city walls in Ireland.

The station is across the Foyle river from the walled city but there is a free bus link to the bus station which is near the shopping centre. We began our walk on the walls at New Gate which is near a bastion containing cannons.

Ferryquay Gate is one of the original four gates and led down to a ferry which used to cross the river. The Guildhall is nearby.

St Columbs Cathedral was built in 1633, one of the first after the Reformation and the oldest building in the city.

St. Augustine’s Church is known as ‘The Wee Church’ and was built on the site of an abbey which St Columba constructed around 543AD before sailing over to Iona in 563AD. It has been rebuilt a number of times until the last in 1872.

There are views all around: over to the Bogside

…and to St Eugene’s Cathedral

We spotted a bookshop near the Craft Village.

Foyle Books is run by a retired French teacher. It has a huge selection of Irish books and others. I picked up one on ‘Difficult to Translate Words and Phrases’ and had a chat with him about this. I had noted that French does not have a word for ‘iceberg’ and we agreed that had they remained in Canada for longer, they might have had one. He also told me that Irish Gaelic has no swear words and so use English ones. My other find was a Hungarian phrasebook which I have been looking for for a couple of months in preparation for our trip to Budapest alter this year. So far in both new and second-hand stores I had had no success. However, this shop had three different ones. I also spotted a book produced by another small society; there seem to be so many devoted to what appear to be minor interests. I had previously come across the Pylon Appreciation Society, but this was a book on British Piers published by The Piers Society which I had not heard of before. Along the wall outside the Millennium Forum is an Anthony Gormley sculpture. There were originally three but the others have ended up overseas.

To return to the station we crossed the Peace Bridge which was opened in 2011.

There is then a footpath/cycle route back to the station although some work was being done on part of it. We could have spent much more time here – there are several museums and plenty of culture. That will have to wait for another trip.

Finding quiet spots on the Antrim coast

On By Carol HenshawIn Books, bookshops and libraries, Flowers. plants & trees, Ireland, walks1 Comment


Our main reason for going to Northern Ireland at peak holiday time was to visit relatives before we head off on our trip down under. As usual we took an overnight ferry from Birkenhead to Belfast. A rainbow in the sky promised some improvement in the weather.

We spent the first couple of days visiting family members but then started to get itchy feet so set off down the coast passing the hordes of people visiting the Giant’s Causeway and the Carrick-a Rede Rope Bridge. Our first stop was at the Portanaeevey viewpoint which gives views over to Rathlin Island and the mUll of Kintyre.


Our first destination was Carfunnock Country Park which is north of Larne. It was formed from two country estates and has several facilities for children and young people as well as a campsite. I was most interested to see the garden. This was formerly the kitchen garden of Cairncastle Lodge which was gifted to the local council in 1957 with the estate. By the 1980s it was in decline but grants enabled its restoration in the 1990s. It is now called The Time Garden and has numerous sundials giving GMT, BST and local time.


Heading north again along the coast our next stop was the garden at Glenarm Castle. This was a more traditional walled garden with pleached lime trees, beech hedges and many beds of flowers, fruit and herbs.

There were several sculptures among the plants.

There is a fudge factory in the grounds and the castle, still owned by the local aristocrats is occasionally open to the public. On our last day we popped in to the Bookcase, a second-hand bookshop in Portrush. He has a good selection of Irish books as well as general fiction, non-fiction and children’s books.

We dodged the showers on one of our favourite beaches at Whitepark Bay. There were a few dog walkers but it was pretty quiet.

The cliffs here are chalk in contract to the basalt columns of the Giant’s Causeway. You can often find fossils on the beach, most commonly belemnites (we have several on our mantelpiece) and occasionally, ammonites.
On the path down to the beach you pass a building and some ruins of an old ‘hedge school’. This was for young gentlemen and dates from the 18th century.

The beach is now under the care of the National Trust. There is a Youth Hostel here. Occasionally sheep and cows graze on the grass next to the beach under an agreement. Keeping the grass low, encourages wild flowers. There were some cows when we arrived but they quickly departed when a heavy shower arrived. If the tide is not high you can walk along the beach to Ballintoy harbour. It was soon time to head home again and after another night on the ferry we arrived in Birkenhead dock just as the sun was rising over Liverpool.

Re-discovering Biddulph Grange Garden

On By Carol HenshawIn Flowers. plants & trees1 Comment


Despite it being only a few miles from home, it is over twenty years since I last visited Biddulph Grange. The last time was in the 1990s after it re-opened after restoration by the National Trust although many of the current features had not been created then. The house began as a rectory and was purchased by James Bateman around 1840. Along with his friend Edward Cooke, he began plant collecting and creating the garden. Bateman eventually moved on and in 1896 the house burnt down and so had to be re-built. It functioned as a children’s and then an orthopaedic hospital from 1923 until the 1980s. The gardens became very neglected until the National Trust took it over. The current building is a curious mix of brick and stone. Much of it consists of private apartments with a small portion containing the cafe and shop run by the National Trust.

The garden is divided into several different areas and it would take some time to explore them all. We looked at the Chinese Garden:

and wandered past the section devoted to Egypt and around various small paths and tunnels. I remembered the Stumpery from my last visit. This was constructed in 1856 and is said to be the first in the country. Parts of dead trees and other wood are used to grow plants on and around, a little like rocks in a rockery.

The Wellingtonia Avenue heads away from the house towards a gate which is opened once a year into the Country Park.

You can return via the Woodland Walk. It has several adventure playground items made from wood for children to enjoy.

Near the house there are several terraces and parterres and a dahlia walk. The geological gallery was the old Victorian entrance and houses a display of fossils and rocks collected by Batemen.

Most are reproduction with only one original. This grass planted in an urn on one of the terraces was very reminiscent of Donald Trump’s hair.

As the current hot dry weather continues we retreated to the cafe for a cold drink and some local ice-cream to cool off. Ducks were hovering in the pond outside hoping for some scraps.

There is an extremely well-stocked garden shop with a good range of plants, herbs and trees as well as tools, accessories and decorative items. When the rains return I might return here and select a few more plants for the garden as well as explore some of the areas we did not see on this visit.