Secret Gardens of the South Lakes
 View over Morecambe Bay from Arnside Knott |
Enjoy a beautiful journey, through dramatic Lakeland Landscapes, onto the Furness Peninsula in the South of Cumbria.
On route you will enjoy fantastic vistas over Morecambe Bay, the second largest Bay in the United Kingdom - 310 square metres of intertidal mudflats - where the ebbing tide can fall back an incredible 12 kilometres to reveal undulating expanses of sands, meandering channels and tidal pools
"When
low tides drain the estuary gold
Small intersecting breakers far away
Ripple about a bar of shifting sand"
John Betjeman
You will see The Victorian Promenade Gardens at Grange over Sands, laid out by Hayes of Ambleside over one hundred years, ago before stopping at Charney Well, the private garden of designer Christopher Holliday and his partner Richard Roberts. Charney Well is a connoisseur's plant paradise packed with the unusual. The strong Mediterranean and Southern Hemisphere planting, including 170 phormium and exotic foliage, acts as a fantastic back drop for spectacular views of Morecambe Bay.
You then move onto the historic village of Cartmel where you can enjoy lunch, sticky toffee pudding, browse through the small collection of high quality antique and craft shops, or take a short-guided tour of 14th Century Cartmel Priory, once the home of the Augustinian Black Cannons.
Next stop Holker Hall at Cark in Cartmel - a magnificent formal and woodland garden - exotic trees, shrubs, ancient oaks, a beech walk, a stunning display of rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias and camellias, formal gardens, a limestone cascade and the National Collection of styracaceae.
You travel along the River Crake and the shore of Coniston Water to the home of art critic, poet, artist and social reformer John Ruskin for afternoon tea. Brantwood, Ruskin's home for 30 years enjoys one of the best views in the Lake District. The garden is a true Lakeland landscape garden with a series of steep and winding paths laid out to lead to views and interesting objects. Here we will endeavour to spend time with the Head Gardener who has spent the past ten years restoring Brantwood to its former glory.
Your
return home will take in more stunning landscapes and beautiful vistas
enticing you to return soon.
