The Japanese Garden at St. Mawgan
Japanese Garden at St. Mawgan
This is an unexpected place to find in Cornwall where, when you think of gardens, you first think of spring gardens. Essentially it is a showplace for the attached nursery. We visited too early in the year to do the garden justice though perhaps that meant that we were able to see the form better for the lack of flowering content. We must revisit when the azaleas are in bloom.
Compared with our favourite Japanese gardens - at Kildare in Ireland and Tatton Park in Cheshire - this is of relatively minor interest. A pleasant enough garden but lacking any outstanding features. And we have to comment that maintenance was not what you might hope for, particularly at a showcase for a nursery. Perhaps it will be better next time. Anyway, we enjoyed walking around St. Mawgan, a lovely village, and walked down the valley to Mawgan Porth and back. There is a pub and tea-rooms in St. Mawgan. If you walk to Mawgan Porth, there is a pub and caf� there and a seasonal caf� on the way there.
Tea House and Carp Pool
Central in St. Mawgan village
More in Gardens
Trebah and Glendurgan revisited 2014
revisited 2014
Trebah Garden
The renowned Fox family had a hand in the creation of many of Cornwall's finest gardens. Trebah, created by Charles Fox during the 1820s and 30s, is a casual and colourful semi-wild 'ravine' garden of some 25 acres, dropping 200 feet down a sheltered valley to a private beach on the broad estuary of the peaceful Helford River. After some 50 years of neglect, the Hibbert family began restoring Trebah in 1980. It is a garden of many parts and really merits the best part of a morning or afternoon to do it full justice. An impressive Visitor Centre - with shop, caf� and art gallery - is in the form of a tea planter's bungalow. Trebah’s essence is of Cornish Spring Garden - magnolias, camellias, azaleas and giant rhodos - but it is much more. Central in the ravine, a stream garden meanders through ponds and water gardens to the beach on the Helford River; around it are first bamboos, tree ferns and Chusan palms, later a sea of hydrangeas, brilliant in summer. High paths along the ravine offer glorious viewpoints and superb overviews. There is ample car parking. The National Trust's enjoyable and contrasting Glendurgan is very close by. For American interest at Trebah see the box below.
Trebartha Estate
We already knew the area where the Trebartha Estate is, to the south-east of Bodmin Moor. Some years ago we had walked from North Hill, taking in Hawke's Tor and Trewortha Tor. In winter 2006 I had passed through, and admired, Trebartha village, whilst walking the Copper Trail. So, when we heard that Trebartha's landscape garden was to be open for charity one day in September 2006, we jumped at the chance of a visit. Trebartha Hall was built by the Spoures around 1500, destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1720. Trebartha then passed to the Rodds. After use in the 2nd World War as a military hospital, the hall was almost derelict and new owners, the Lathams, demolished it to build a modern house. Near the car park is a fenced-off well, inside the fencing several old crosses and a direction stone. A path then leads along the River Lynher, past the Swan Pool and into fine mature woodland where a stream casacades down the hillside. Approached separately from the car park, a series of medieval fish ponds form another garden, the pools gradually being restored and planted. We found Trebartha enchanting though not outstanding and we enjoyed the home-made tea and cakes served in the old laundry. We returned in May 2007 to enjoy the spring shrubs.