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Garden Name: Bodnant Garden
Last Modified: 19/01/2011
Garden ID: 0258

pic: 0258_Bodnant.jpg

Owner: National Trust
Address:
Tal-y-Cafn
Colwyn Bay
Conwy
Postcode: LL28 5RE
County: Wales

tel: 01492-650460
fax: 01492 - 650448
website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-bodnantgarden
email: bodnantgarden {at} nationaltrust.org.uk

Features: 
Italianate terraces, water and champion trees.

English Heritage Grade:


Opening Times:
26th Feb - 31st Oct; daily; 10am - 5pm, 
1st Nov - 13th Nov, daily, 10am - 4pm. Last entry 30mins before closing.

Best Times of Year to Visit: 
May and June

To see: 
Rhododendrons, azaleas and laburnum arch.

National Collection: 
Magnolia, Eucryphia, Embothrium

National Garden Scheme days: Yes
Comments: 18th July

Parties / Coaches: Yes 
Comments: 

Viewing by Appointment: No
Comments: Booking not required. 

House Open for Viewing: no
Comments: 

Admission Prices:
Gift Aid Admission (Standard Admission prices in brackets): 
Adult £8.50 (£7.72), child £4.25 (£3.86)

Parking: Yes
Lavatories: Yes
Disabled Access: Yes
Shop: Yes
Plants for Sale: Yes
Lunches: Yes
Teas: Yes
Refreshments: Yes
Picnics: No
Dogs allowed: No
Only on Lead: No
Events: No

Other Facilities:
Difficult for wheelchairs. Dogs on lead and in car park only. Assistance dogs only in garden. 
Pavilion and Magnolia Tea rooms.
Many outdoor events, including Head Gardener's Walks, Falconry displays, archery, Theatre in the Garden check website for details.


Designer: 
Description of Garden:
Stephen Lacey, the garden writer, lecturer and presenter has written that "the scale, grandeur and scenic beauty of this garden are nothing short of stupendous...this garden is a masterpiece". If an annual prize were to be awarded to the best garden in the British Isles, Bodnant would probably have won it often enough to keep the trophy. This garden, particularly in the beginning of June when the Laburnum Arch is in full bloom, is worth making a special expedition to see. The highlights and continual delightful surprises are numerous and start with the walk down the five spectacular terraces with their expanses of lawn, huge mature cedar trees, architectural ornament, water and plants. On the Canal terrace is the Pin Mill, an 18th century mill transported from Gloucestershire and re-built on this site in 1939. 

Further down the path follows the valley of the river Hiraethlyn amongst banks of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and tree magnolias and the visitor reaches the famous viewpoint looking over the river well below and turning towards the old stone mill. There are spectacular stands of enormous fir, hemlock, cedar and redwood, one of them at 45 metres the tallest in the British Isles. In autumn the marvellous colours of the japanese maples, rowans, liquidambar and birches are almost beyond description.


History: 
The massive granite house almost 200ft above the River Conway was built in 1792 and a large number of sheltering trees, such as beech, oak and chesnut were subsequently planted. The estate was bought by Henry Pochin, the father-in-law of the first Lord Aberconway, in 1874 and, with help from Edward Milner, the landscape architect, he began laying out a 'reposeful' garden including a terrace, grass banks and many trees, especially the conifers along the valley floor. Later he built the Mausoleum and Laburnum Arch in 1878. Henry Duncan, the 2nd Lord Aberconway, with encouragement from his mother, created the five huge terraces and convinced his head gardener in 1908 to try out Chinese rhododendrons. He also subscribed to many plant-hunting expeditions, in particular that by Harold Comber in the 1920s, which resulted in the introduction to this country of the spectacular Chilean fire bush.

In 1920 Frederick Puddle became Head Gardener and was in due course succeeded by his son Charles Puddle in 1947 and then by his grandson Martin in 1982. Both the 3rd Lord Aberconway and his father have both won the Victoria Medal of Honour, the highest award of the RHS (and were at times its Presidents), as have Frederick and Charles Puddle.

Local Inns: 
Groes Inn, Tyn-y-groes

Accomodation: 
Groes Inn, Tyn-y-groes

Restaurants: 


Village/Town/Sightseeing: 
Conwy - historic walled town and castle.
Llandudno - seaside resort
Betws-y-coed - countryside