Enys Garden near Penryn
In the same family since Norman times, and reputedly the first Cornish garden to receive public attention, Enys seems to be spoken of with something like awe. Garden writer Timothy Mowle refers to it as 'a sleeping beauty of a garden'. Douglas Ellory Pett, Cornish garden expert, has a brief description in his Cornwall Gardens Guide. So, learning that a Trust had been formed to restore Enys and had applied for Heritage Lottery funding for that purpose, and that it was open a couple of days a week from March to October (and on the first Sunday of each month), we thought that, despite references to 'the first stages of romantic decay', it could be worth visiting. We did so on the first Sunday of May 2006. So did about a thousand others. We are sorry to say that we were very disappointed. We should have guessed, when we passed the gloomy-looking four-square Regency house, looking for all the world like a run-down Anglo-Irish home, that little had been done to the garden except the clearance of a few paths. We would have been right. Nowhere looked as if any effort had yet been made and few rhodos, azaleas or magnolias were in bloom. The guide leaflet was misleading and most people were losing their way in woodland that should have been marked off-limits. The lakes that Pett refers to were not accessible. Frankly, nothing was worth seeing except the wonderful blankets of bluebells in Parc Lye.
2020: Open Tue, Thu 2-5, Sun 11-5
Bluebells in Parc Lye
In late March 2008 I visited Carclew near Perranarworthal, open under NGS aegis. It reminded me of Enys, a disaster area needing 10 years restoration work. As it is, half the site is closed off, the rest is muddy and gloomy. The ornamental lake is in a terrible state.
More in Gardens
Glendurgan and Trebah revisited 2014
Living, as we do, 40 miles or so from Mawnan Smith, it is not often that we get to see the Helford River ravine gardens. However, a free pass to Trebah encouraged us that way and National Trust membership added Glendurgan. We had expected to prefer Glendurgan to Trebah and were surprised that it didn’t work that way. In the event we found Glendurgan a little colourless and short on views while Trebah seemed full of colour with many delightful views. Glendurgan’s prime feature must be its impressive and well-kept maze, best seen from the high path on the east side of the ravine. Trebah’s is the view north up the ravine from the beach end of the garden, looking across a small lake and past massed hydrangeas in the valley and mature trees on the slopes up to the house. In both gardens we set out on the high western path and returned first on the high eastern path and then on the low central path. In Glendurgan this allows you to see the Schoolroom Summerhouse, in Trebah you get to see the impressive new stone amphitheatre, built in 2014 and already the venue of the Miracle Theatre’s production of ‘The Tempest’. We concluded that the essential difference between the two gardens is that Glendurgan is presented ‘take it ot leave it’ while Trebah is very much a commercial enterprise with shop, plant centre and a good large restaurant/caf�. As members we would like to prefer Glendurgan but have to plump for Trebah.
Glendurgan Garden
Cornwall's south coast is full of sub-tropical valley and ravine gardens, many created by the Falmouth Quaker ship-owning Fox family. Glendurgan was the work of Alfred Fox, nearby Trebah of Charles. Glendurgan's 40 acres run down a valley to the tiny hamlet of Durgan (you can rent a National Trust cottage there) on the Helford River. Specimen trees and tree ferns are quite superb. In spring daffodils, primroses and bluebells provide good early colour; they are followed rapidly by giant magnolias, camellias and rhododendrons. Hydrangeas, other shrubs and wild flowers provide summer colour. There is a large maze of low laurel hedges. As ever with the National Trust, maintenance is immaculate. For a pub lunch try the Red Lion at Mawnan Smith or (at quiet times) the Ferryboat Inn at Helford Passage. Our preference was the Red Lion but the Ferryboat, after a change of hands, is now quite classy. Glendurgan has an alfresco tea shop and ample parking. The garden is signed from Mawnan Smith village, as is adjacent Trebah. If you are a spring garden enthusiast, perhaps you will make a day of the two. If you are interested in following up the Fox Quaker association try the charming Come-to-Good Meeting House near the National Trust's Trellisick Garden. Glendurgan revisited 2014
Headland Garden at Polruan (July 2020 - House for sale, garden closed)
We had intended to visit the remarkable Headland Garden at Polruan for a long time. It was only when we learned that the garden at Readymoney Cove would be open during Fowey's 2006 Daphne du Maurier Festival that we saw the chance to combine the two. We parked above Readymoney Cove (expensive), walked down to the garden there, then took the little passenger ferry across to Polruan to see Headland Garden. There has been a garden of sorts here since the house was built around 1900. However, what you see now was very much the creation of Jean and John Hill from 1974. How anyone could create a garden on so precipitous, rocky and exposed a site is almost beyond belief. But the result is quite remarkable, narrow paths - and it is said 500 steps - wind up and down the site, through surprisingly lush plantings, protected by Monterey pine, mountain ash, escallonia and euonymous. Exotics like mesembryanthemum, agave, aeonium, and aloe sprout from rock crevices. Red hot poker, osteospermum, hebe and the baby sun-rose all flourish. In spring primroses, foxgloves and bluebells grow wild. Views are ravishing - up the River Fowey, across the estuary to Fowey, Readymoney and St. Catherine's Castle.