UK & Ireland - day 22 (2015-10-01) - Lostwithiel

Between 1770 and 1914, 4 generations of the Tremayne family managed their estate, Heligan, near Mevagissey, Cornwall.  But when most of their staff left to fight in WWI, the family moved to another family property and the gardens at Heligan were left to their own devices.  The gardens continued to become overgrown until 1990, when Tim Smit and John Nelson decided to try and restore the gardens, now known as the Lost Gardens of Heligan, to their former beauty.

Today, the Lost Gardens was our destination.  I had done my research on trains and buses, and we arrived in St. Austell as planned, where we waited for the #24 bus....the Heligan brochure identified that there is a bus stop at their main gate, and the Cornwall bus timetable showed the #24 bus from St. Austell to Mevagissey as the only likely bus that would go to Heligan.  So I was somewhat surprised when the bus driver told me that he did not go to Heligan, but that he could take us to Mevagissey, from where we would have a 45 minute uphill walk to Heligan.  What choice did we have?, so onto the bus we went.

It turned out well, as from Mevagissey we could follow an off-road pedestrian path all the way to Heligan - 2.4 Km and only a 30 minute walk (each way), through woodland.

The gardens themselves are 220 acres, but what the English call a garden is not what Canadians would call a garden....an English garden is all of the property around the house.  Most of the 220 acres at Heligan are woodland and pasture, with a much smaller area being gardens - places where you grow flowers and vegetables. 

We did the gardens justice, walking through most of the different sections, which included a Burmese rope bridge, a New Zealand section, and actual vegetable and flower gardens, plus areas for pigs, emus, ducks, geese, etc.  We both walked across the Burmese rope bridge, which wasn't at all scary, and I was able to name most of the trees in the New Zealand section, including my favourite - Rangiora (toilet paper tree).

                                                             Top Pond

                                                Jim in the New Zealand section

                                                       Fruit & Vegetable area

                                         Marlene on the Burmese rope bridge

Heligan is also home to two well-know living sculptures, the Giant's Head and the Mud Maid, which were created in 1998 by local artists Sue and Pete Hill.  They are both made from mud, with plants used to create features and contrast.

                                                         The Giant's Head

                                                             The Mud Maid

We got back to Lostwithiel at 5:30 pm and walked around town until the Globe Inn was serving food at 6:30 pm.  I love dogs as much as the next man, and I am okay with dogs on buses and trains, even dogs in pubs, but what we saw in the Globe tonight was beyond what I would consider reasonable....a dog sitting on the owner's lap at the bar, drinking out of her glass and eating treats off the bar.  

Tomorrow we pack up and move to Bristol, with no real plans in mind, as we simply need to get there to catch our flight to Ireland on Sunday.  So it will be interesting to see what we discover.