Beautiful Dartington Hall Gardens

Dartington Hall is an historic house and country estate of 1,200 acres dating from medieval times. Late 14th century buildings are grouped around a huge courtyard. We ventured there to see the Hall and the Gardens and so that Bruce could go to The White Hart pub which was built between 1388 and 1400 by John Holand, half-brother of King Richard II.

We passed the lovely border garden

and headed to reception where bought our tickets, and headed over toward the hall.

We passed a gorgeous swamp cypress tree, a conifer native to the southeastern US, which was planted on the estate over 150 years ago.

The buildings in the courtyard are now used as holiday lettings. Fancy staying here!

We crossed the courtyard and walked up the steps of Dartington Hall.

It was almost predictable, wasn't it?

Next door is the White Hart Pub, also closed.

Right. Well, we were really here for the gardens, weren't we?

Following a small path we arrived at "Dorothy's Sunny Border"

which was created in 1928 by Dorothy Elmhirst, a woman from New York who, with her millionaire husband Leonard, from Yorkshire, purchased the estate in 1925. The border was redesigned in 1985 by Danish landscape architect Preben Jakobsen, who modernized it.

Across the path are the famous Twelve Apostles, Irish Yews which were planted after the Second World War. They had deteriorated to such an extent that they were drastically pruned so that they can regenerate. The photo on the left is from 1991. On the right is the state of the yews today.

We walked up a path where some beautiful Himalayan poppies were growing near a small pond.

There was a swan fountain up the path carved from Cornish granite. When it was erected it was decided that the color was too stark, so gardeners painted it with cow manure to encourage lichen to grow on it. Ew...but clearly, it worked.

The Dartington Gardens aren't, for the most part, formal gardens, but more a fabulous landscape containing broad expanses of lawn and meadow with wonderful old trees.

The Tiltyard:

View of the Hall, the Sunny Border and the Twelve Apostles:

There was a row of Sweet Chestnuts planted over 400 years ago.

I found the one on the end particularly interesting. It looked like it had been damaged by fire, but had survived and continued to grow.

At the end of the row of chestnuts is a sculpture by Henry Moore, dedicated to Christopher Martin, first administrator of the Arts Center of Dartington Hall, 1934 - 1944.

A small path led to a sweet statue dedicated to Dorothy and Leonard.

A path through a wildflower meadow

brought us to a building know as The Temple.

We made our way back to the chestnut trees, and just beyond it was the Whispering Circle.

If you stand in the center of circle and speak, your voice is amplified. It actually worked.

At the bottom of a long flight of stone steps

a path led past a bronze statue of a donkey by Austrian artist, Willi Soukop, which was erected there in 1935.

Further along was the fabulous Nectar Garden which was abuzz with bees.

From the end of the Nectar Garden you could see the Playhouse, built in 1929 for the use of the Elmhirst children.

Further down the path was a walled garden with greenhouse that was a riot of color.

Just outside the gardens is the tower of St. Mary's Church, built in the 13th century, with additions made in the 15th century. The rest of the original church was demolished in 1878. Behind the tower is the oldest living resident of the gardens, an enormous yew tree estimated to be over 1500 years old. (For purposes of scale, Bruce is six feet tall.)

Think about that: 1500 years old. The Romans had left fewer than 100 years before. The Anglo-Saxons had established their kingdoms. William the Conqueror wouldn't arrive for a further 500 years. Wars were fought, kings and queens came and went, and this magnificent tree lived through all of it.

The trunk is roped off which is understandable but kind of sad, because I would have loved to touch the bark of this majestic tree.

The tree was in the middle of a very old graveyard, the headstones lost to time.

Walking back to the car park I wished the White Hart Pub had been open so I could toast the yew tree and all the designers and gardeners who created this glorious place.