A Guide to Britain's Secret Gardens
From sprawling rural locations to inner-city sanctuaries, Britain’s glorious gardens have a rich cultural heritage and are packed with horticultural inspiration. We unearth some of the country’s lesser-known gardens offering the chance to reconnect with nature, enjoy beautiful blooms and learn the fascinating stories of the people who made them flourish.
Whether it’s wandering along a cool stone path between colourful humming plants, relaxing by a medieval carp-filled moat or exploring hidden fern-filled tunnels beneath a Welsh mansion, there are plenty of unique places to discover.
1. Cowden Japanese Garden, Dollar
Botanical Garden
From a shared obsession with golf, to the finer points of whisky-making, the Japanese have long been fascinated by Scotland. Perhaps less celebrated is the reciprocal nature of the relationship, beautifully illustrated by Cowden Japanese Garden in Clackmannanshire. Its unlikely existence owes everything to a trip to East Asia taken in the early 1900s by Scottish traveller and explorer Ella Christie. Fascinated by the formal gardens in Japan, Christie returned to her home at Cowden Castle inspired to build a Japanese Garden. She commissioned designer Taki Handa to create the seven-acre (0.4ha) site, making it the first and only garden of its nature to be designed by a woman. Today, the peaceful landscape is home to colourful acers, Scots pines, torii gates, snow lanterns and small bridges that zigzag across the pond and trickling burn.
2. The Plantation Garden, Norwich
Botanical Garden
Hidden behind a Roman Catholic Cathedral in an abandoned chalk mine, the Plantation Garden is a lush, mildly idiosyncratic sanctuary a short walk away from the Norwich city centre. The listed gardens present moments of gentle drama: a towering Gothic fountain jousts with the grand Italianate terrace overlooking the garden, while the beautifully planted flowerbeds and flat lawns are perfect for picnicking.
4. St Dunstans-in-the-East, London
Park
5. Dorothy Clive Garden, Shropshire
Botanical Garden
Created in the 1940s by Colonel Harry Clive, who transformed an old gravel quarry into a beautiful woodland garden for his Parkinson’s disease-stricken wife Dorothy, the eponymous sanctuary is a herbaceous expression of enduring love and companionship. Now a charitable trust, place of rest and horticultural education centre, the hillside gardens include rose walks, an alpine scree with pool, waterfall, edible woodland and a quintessentially English tearoom and terrace lawn.
6. Benmore Botanic Garden, Argyll
Botanical Garden
This magnificent mountainside garden is set near the head of a loch in Scotland’s scenic Cowal peninsula. Thanks to its impressive collection of trees and plants, some of which have been growing for over 150 years, a visit to Benmore is a horticultural tour around the world. After a walk along the avenue of towering redwoods at the garden’s entrance, you can explore a miniature Chilean rainforest, Japanese valley, Bhutanese glade or the beautiful Victorian fernery tucked beneath one of the hillsides.
7. Hindringham Hall Gardens, Norfolk
Botanical Garden
Like something out of a fairytale, Hindringham’s charming tudor manor is surrounded by three acres (1.2ha) of gardens, a medieval carp- and eel-filled moat and ponds dating back to 1150. The garden’s original role was to provide fruit, vegetables and herbs for the house and still has its working walled kitchen garden today. Make some time to walk along the meandering paths of the wild and stream gardens, or the leafy Victorian nut walk before stopping for tea at the café by the moat.
8. Inverewe Garden, Poolewe
Botanical Garden
9. Oudolf Field at Hauser and Wirth, Somerset
Art Gallery
Hidden behind the Hauser & Wirth gallery buildings in Somerset lies a romantic perennial meadow created by world-renowned Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf. Drifts of tall, delicate grasses and plants with striking seed heads create a sustainable garden that looks beautiful in all four seasons, even in the depths of winter. At the end of the field, the pebble-like Radić Pavilion blends in perfectly with Oudolf’s soft, natural landscape.
10. Eltham Palace Gardens, London
Building, Monastery
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