Gardens to visit with children

There is more to a public garden than rose bushes and herbaceous borders. From dry deck fountains and beaches to farms and steam trains, they will keep the children happy for hours. Here are some of Dream Escape's favourites...

ENGLAND

Best for water-mad children:

The Alnwick Garden, Northumberland

Serpent Garden at The Alnwick Garden

A visit to Alnwick is like diving into a storybook. These mesmerising gardens are the creation of the Duchess of Northumberland, who lives in the grounds at Alnwick Castle, used as the filmset for Hogwarts in two of the Harry Potter films. The Duchess sought to devise a garden like no other, from the stunning waterfall displays at the Grand Cascade to the towering bamboo maze. Children will love splashing through the dry deck fountains on the Serpent Garden sculpture trail or attempting to escape mythical beasts at the adventure golf. The world’s biggest treehouse, an 18fthigh magical wooden den built around 16 lime trees and housing a restaurant, will enchant too. The quirky Poison Garden, home to deadly and narcotic plants, has free guided tours.

Best for beach lovers:

Trebah Garden, Cornwall

Gunnera Passage at Trebah Garden

© James Bannister 2019

The jewel in the crown of this exotic jungle-type garden hidden away in a Cornish valley is its very own private beach, Polgwidden Cove. Used as a base for US forces to launch the D-day landings at the end of WWII, the beach is the perfect place from which to take a paddle in the sea or watch waves crashing. Back in the gardens, down the coast from Falmouth, children will love the wooden play forts – one for those aged under fives, the other for over fives – with slides, bounce nets and a mini zip-line. They can also imagine they’re in a Roald Dahl novel by playing hide-and-seek through the tall bamboo park or the giant rhubarb tunnel – some shoots grow as tall as 5m and have leaves half as wide. Handy for a break is Alice’s Seat, an idyllic thatched summerhouse surrounded by beautifully scented plants. Visitors can also try and spot some of Trebah’s eight ‘champion’ trees – designated the tallest or fattest in Britain.

Best for history: Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall

The Mudmaid Sculpture at Lost Gardens of Heligan

With banana plantations, exotic plants, raised boardwalks and a 100-ft high Burmese rope bridge, Heligan near St Austell feels like subtropical paradise. A mini jungle has been created in a steep-sided valley, with a microclimate that is five degrees warmer than the surroundings. The original gardens descended into dereliction during WW1 after workers left to fight.

It was only after a 1990 hurricane revealed a Thunderbox avatory, with the signatures of those workers inscribed into its walls and the date they left, that the estate’s owner John Willis and archaeologist Sir Tim Smit decided to recreate their grandeur as a tribute. The Imperial War Museum has since designated the Thunderbox a war memorial.

Today there is also a rare breeds farm and a poultry orchard with pigs, sheep, cows, chickens, goats and horses. Look out for the Mud Maid, Giant’s Head and Grey Lady sculptures too.

Best for variety: Chatsworth, Derbyshire

Children walking along the broadwalk at Chatsworth

Image credit shoot360.co.uk

The gardens around Chatsworth House in Bakewell in the heart of the Peak District have been nurtured by 16 generations of the Devonshire family for nearly 500 years. Today the 105 acres are filled with ponds, gravity fed fountains, a stunning rockery, waterfalls, ornamental hedges and sculptures. Its vast yew maze contains 1,209 trees, while at the human sundial your shadow will fall on the time of day if you stand on the relevant month. At the farmyard you can meet pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys and guinea pigs, and the huge adventure playground with slides and a zip-line is sure to challenge even the most boisterous of children. The hunting tower is worth a climb up for fabulous views.

Best for nostalgia:

Exbury Gardens, Hampshire

A trip to Exbury in the New Forest is like stepping back in time. A narrowgauge steam railway with a replica Victorian station, turntable and railway shed is the focal point and a 1.5-mile trip will weave you through a tunnel, over a bridge, past a hidden garden and around a pond. Alongside Beaulieu River there’s a tranquil woodland walk with viewing points dotted along the way, so you can watch wading birds like oystercatchers in the estuary’s tidal flats. Owned by the de Rothschild family, the gardens also contain world-renowned collections of rhododendrons, azaleas and camelias.

Best for royalty fans:

Osborne, Isle of Wight

Children enjoying Osborne

Image © English Heritage Trust

Osborne was Queen Victoria’s royal seaside retreat and she once commented that it was impossible to imagine a prettier spot. Visitors can follow in her footsteps by taking a dip off the private beach where she used to bathe and where her nine children learned to swim. You can even go inside the bathing machine where the Queen changed. Prince Albert planted many trees that still exist in the garden today, as well as some of the magnolia and myrtle covering the walls of the ornate terraces. Hidden in the woods is an Alpine-style chalet that was built by the Prince in the 1850s as a hideaway where the royal children could play and learn in a relaxed setting. Today you can wander round the cottage and see how they would have experimented with baking and making butter and cheese.

SCOTLAND

Best for natural beauty:

Traquair House, Scottish Borders

Peacock at Traquair House

Scotland’s oldest inhabited house near Peebles dates back 900 years and, as a former royal hunting lodge, has played host to a string of monarchs, including Mary Queen of Scots who stayed here in 1566 with her son, the future King James VI of Scotland and James I of England. There are no formal gardens but 100 acres of parkland, wilderness and woods, home to some of Scotland’s oldest yew trees as well as otters, deer and even red squirrels. Pretty woodland trails take visitors past Quair Water and the River Tweed, as well as through towering Scots pine, Douglas fir and gnarled horse-chestnut and lime trees, some of which are begging to be climbed. Adults can keep an eye on the children in the hedged maze – the largest in Scotland – from the terrace above. You can also visit the resident goats, swans and rare-breed pigs or grab a mallet for a game on the croquet lawn.

IRELAND

Best for forest bathing:

Strokestown Park, Roscommon

Strokestown holds a key place in Irish history. During the infamous Great Irish Famine of the 1840s its owner Major Denis Mahon was the first landlord to be killed after many of his tenants died of starvation or were shipped abroad to a likely death. Nowadays there is a museum commemorating the famine in the estate’s house, but outside its soothing woods and 6-acre walled garden belies its macabre past. Forest bathing stations along a woodland trial through 300-year-old beech and oak trees offer visitors the chance to lie back and soak up Strokestown’s tranquillity and beauty, surrounded by nothing but birdsong. A pretty lily pond, a sculpture walk, an outdoor xylophone, a wishing tree and a fairy walk will delight youngsters too.

Family enjoying Strokestown Park Gardens

DigiCol Photography (c) 2022

Best for views:

Garinish Island, Cork

The Italian Garden, Garinish Island

©Tourism Ireland

Formerly known as Ilnacullin, this exotic island paradise can only be reached by waterbus or ferry, and passengers can look out for wild harbour seals, herons and sea eagles on the way. Once there, you feel like you’re in a secret garden. Originally designed by renowned landscape architect Harold Peto to combine Arts and Crafts and Italianate styles, it’s packed with quirky features and exotic plants from far-flung destinations, such as Japan, South America and New Zealand.

The Grecian Temple has fabulous views over Bantry Bay and the Caha Mountains on the mainland, as does the 19th-century Martello Tower, built by the British War Office to defend against Napoleon. There’s also a clock tower, a garden house and a sunken garden.

Best for treetop fun:

Avondale Forest Park, Wicklow

Avondale Treetop Walk and Viewing Tower

A recently opened treetop walkway leading to a 38m-high tower with panoramic views is Avondale’s latest offering. After soaking in the aroma of the surrounding eucalyptus trees, those brave enough can head back down via a spiral slide. Back on the ground there is a raft of signposted trails spread across its 500 acres, like the river walk along the Avondale. The house in the grounds was the birthplace of Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell, son of wealthy landowner John Henry Parnell and his American wife Delia Tudor Stewart, whose father Charles Stewart served in the United States Navy for 63 years, the longest time ever.

Three of Dream Escape's favourites...

Russborough House, Wicklow

You can search for colourful fairy doors among the trees at Lady’s Island, where Faylinn and his fairy friends live. Receive a booklet brimming with information about the clan, including how to speak to them.

Lough Boora Discovery Park, Offaly

The 14 fairies on Fairy Avenue each have a special talent, like Little Tom who cleans, and Cabhair who takes troubles away at the worry plaque. Download a map to find out who lives where.

Erica’s Fairy Forest, Cavan

Created by parents Natasha and Ciaran as a tribute to their fairy loving daughter who died from cancer aged five, this magical kingdom features beautifully designed fairy houses with tiny features like washing lines.

Find out more:

Caroline Charnock, Garden Specialist

There are so many fabulous gardens in the UK and Ireland to visit with your children. I remember mine loving the adventure playground and maze at Chatsworth House while we adults enjoyed the house in peace! Other fabulous experiences include learning how to cook something from the kitchen garden at Sarah Raven’s Perch Hill – a real garden-totable experience, or exploring London’s secret gardens.”

→ caroline@dreamescape.co.uk

WORDS | FIONA WHITTY