A beautiful day out in the Conwy Valley (Bodnant Gardens (Nr Colwyn Bay, Wales))

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	Bodnant Gardens (Nr Colwyn Bay, Wales)
Date:	19/06/08 (121 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely gardens, nice shops, free parking and a good tea room

Disadvantages: National Trust prices

When my mother in law came to visit last week we all went for a walk round Bodnant Gardens and I realised, despite the fact that I have visited a few times, I have never written a review on the place. I am about to rectify that error forthwith! LOL!

Where is it?

Bodnant Garden is owned by the National Trust and is situated in North Wales about 8 miles south of Llandudno and Colwyn Bay. The address is Bodnant Garden, Tal-y-Cafn, Colwyn Bay, Conwy LL28 5RE. The website address is www.bodnantgarden.co.uk

How do I get there?

To get there all you have to do is exit the A55, which is the main North Wales coast road, at junction 19 and follow the signs. The garden is situated on the East side of the Conwy Valley off the A470.

What is there?

At the site of Bodnant Garden there is the main garden, a gift shop associated with the garden, some other small gift and craft shops, a small garden centre, a large woodland car park and the Pavilion Tea Room. Of course there are also toilets for both able bodied and disabled visitors.

The Car Park

I might as well start at the beginning! The car park is on three levels set into the woods opposite the garden. There are plenty of nice grassy areas for picnics as you are asked not to picnic in the main grounds of the garden. Parking is free whether you intend to visit the garden or just go to the shops or the tea room.

There is also a small cabin on the edge of the car park where there are National Trust employees to give information about the organisation and where you can join if you want to. If you do join on the day you visit Bodnant Garden then you get your entrance fee refunded. To be honest it is better to join online as you get twelve months subscription for the cost of nine.

The Pavilion Tea Room

As you walk from the car park you come to the Pavilion Tea Room. There are toilets set back from the building a short walk up steps into the woods but there are toilets for disabled visitors at the side of the tea rooms which can be accessed without any climbing! The tea room has a serving hatch to the outside so you can order food and drink to be consumed at the tables outside or as part of your picnic in the woods.

The Pavilion Tea Room itself is a wooden building fitting in well with the surrounding woodland. They serve light meals, snacks, tea, coffee, soft drinks and alcohol (with a meal) and I have always enjoyed any food or drink that we have consumed here. We even went for a Christmas lunch here one year (not on Christmas Day of course!) and it was excellent. The food is good value and freshly prepared and there is always a good selection of cakes too!

Across the road

The gardens and the shops are all on the opposite side of the road to the tea shop and car park and, until last year, you had to dodge the traffic to get across. They have now constructed an excellent underpass. It is wide, designed to fit in with the surroundings and the slope is relatively gentle so it's not too bad for pushchairs and wheelchairs.

The Main Shop

This is quite a large shop and although it is not a National Trust shop as such it does sell a range of National Trust products, together with other gifts for the garden, for the house and all the usual sweets and biscuits.

At Christmas the place also has a lovely grotto with Father Christmas and a very good range of Christmas decorations, trees and gifts.

The Other Shops

There is another small building to the side of the main shop housing about half a dozen smaller shops selling pictures, hand made sweets, toiletries, gifts and there is also a small tea shop here too.

The Garden Centre

The garden centre here is quite small but does stock a good range of bedding plants, shrubs, etc at a reasonable price.

Bodnant Garden

As I said earlier it is owned by the National Trust so you have to pay to get in. The current prices are Adult £6.50, Child £3.30 and parties of 15 or more £5 each. There is also second set of prices £7.20, £3.60 and £5.50 which include a voluntary 10% donation to the upkeep of the garden.

The garden is open from the beginning of March until the end of October each year and from 10am until 5pm with last admissions at 4.30pm.

The admission price includes a map but not a guide book - that costs extra, but you don't need the guide book to enjoy your walk around the garden.

As a bit of background information Bodnant garden was only the second garden without a house to be donated to the National Trust, Hidcote being the first. It was donated in 1949 by Henry McLaren, 2nd Baron of Aberconwy and it is still managed by his descendants to this day. Incidentally I got that bit of information from the back of the map that we were given.

The garden covers about 80 acres and is split into two parts. The upper garden around Bodnant Hall is made up of terraced gardens and lawns and the lower part, known as The Dell, is formed by the valley of the River Hiraethlyn and contains a wild garden.

The map shows all the paths through the garden and a dotted line on the map shows a route avoiding steps and very steep slopes. Wheelchairs are available for free hire but cannot be prebooked so you have to take potluck.

I will just say that the first time we visited the garden a couple of years ago I wasn't really looking forward to it at all. I was expecting neat rows of plants and I thought I would be bored silly but how wrong I was!

As you enter the garden you can walk through an archway planted with laburnum which looks stunning when all the flowers are out.

The walks through the garden are gentle and you don't feel hurried at all. Since the garden is large there is plenty of room for everyone to wander around without getting under one another's feet!

There are large lawns with huge trees which must be hundreds of years old. The variety of plants is amazing and as the paths twist around new vistas open up at every turn. Of course the views not only include the plants and the garden but also the Snowdonia Mountains beyond.

There are lots of azaleas, rhododendrons, roses, hebes, water lilies, clematis to name but a few. Actually if I am honest I am naming the ones that I actually recognised!

There is a mausoleum in the garden although it was covered in scaffolding when we were there the other week! There are also a couple of other buildings one of which is the Pin Mill which overlooks a long straight pool in an area called the Canal Terrace, which has a magnificent Magnolia border.

The Dell at the lower part of the garden is wilder in appearance than the semi formal terraces of the upper part. There is a waterfall on the river (I love waterfalls!) and a rock garden.

The Old Mill in The Dell now houses toilets. It's a long walk all the way round the garden and the sight of the toilets was very welcome I can tell you!

The other attraction of the garden is the wildlife. There are lots of birds around as you might guess and you will see robins and blackbirds hopping around and her many others singing away happily in the trees. You will be unlikely to walk all the way round without seeing a squirrel - sadly they are grey squirrels here not red ones but very cute for all that. The garden is also home to owls, bats, frogs, otters and hedgehogs although you are much less likely to see these!

What's On

Bodnant Garden also has various events throughout the year ranging from archery and falconry demonstrations to the head gardeners walk. Even the Antiques Roadshow will be filmed there on 11th September 2008. Full details of all the events are available on the website.

In Conclusion

I hope that I have given you a flavour for the garden and the associated facilities without boring you senseless! It really is worth a visit and we are intending to join the National Trust this year so that we can pop in at various times of the year to see the garden in its different stages and colours during the year.

Incidentally when we went the other week we spent over two hours walking round and we didn't go down into The Dell as my mother in law is still getting over her hip replacement operation.

Summary: A great day out for all ages