National Trust’s Bodnant Garden opens riverside gardens for first time ever

Television gardener Christine Walkden will officially open Far End Garden during a special day of celebration.

The 10-acre Far End Garden, originally known as the wild garden, is part of a project to open all 80 acres of Bodnant to visitors.

Created by five generations of the Pochin family, in the Snowdonian hillside near Conwy, until now visitors have not been able to walk further than the famous Waterfall Bridge in the valley bottom.

Far End Garden is the first part of a project to open up the rest of the grounds, and these will include waterside walks, a skating pond, boathouse and arboretum.

A team of five gardeners and numerous volunteers have been renovating the Far End, one of the oldest parts of the garden, over the past five years.

It was originally laid out by industrial chemist Henry Pochin in the 1870s as The Wild Garden, with paths along the riverside and conifers that are now Champion Trees.

These include the Pinus ayacahuite (Mexican white pine) planted in 1902, which has enormous cones.

“This area continues the great story of the gardens at Bodnant by allowing people for the first time to explore what lies beyond the Waterfall Bridge in the Dell,” says gardener Fran Llewellyn.

“I particularly love the skating pond because it’s so still, peaceful and quiet. You can see kingfishers and other birds here, even otters if you’re lucky!”

Visitors to the Far End Garden can also see rhododendrons in spring, waterside grasses and flowers in summer, vibrant autumn colours and the reflections of giant trees in winter.

Other areas of Bodnant opened to the public in recent years include The Old Park, a wildflower meadow, and Yew Dell, a wooded Himalayan-style glade.

In 2016 there are plans for the Heather Hump, a hillside view point; in 2017 the Furnace Wood should be opened and Cae Poeth, another wildlife meadow, in 2018. 

For more information visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/bodnant or call 01492 650460.