Glorious Gardens from Above episode 8 – North Wales: Christine Walkden visits Bodnant Garden in Snowdonia to explore a Himalayan valley amid the mountains of north Wales.
She meets Phyllis, who is treading in her grandfather’s footsteps. At nearby Bodysgallen Hall, an unexpected view takes her back to childhood holidays. And we hear the story of the building of the Snowdon Mountain Railway.
Glorious Gardens from Above episode 8 – North Wales
Bodnant Garden
Bodnant Garden is a National Trust property near Tal-y-Cafn, Conwy, Wales, overlooking the Conwy Valley towards the Carneddau mountains.
Founded in 1874 and developed by five generations of one family, it was gifted to the National Trust in 1949. The garden spans 80 acres of hillside and includes formal Italianate terraces, informal shrub borders stocked with plants from around the world, The Dell, a gorge garden, a number of notable trees and a waterfall. Since 2012, new areas have opened including the Winter Garden, Old Park Meadow, Yew Dell and The Far End, a riverside garden. Furnace Wood and Meadow opened in 2017. There are plans to open more new areas, including Heather Hill and Cae Poeth Meadow.
Bodnant Garden was visited by over 250,000 people in 2018 and is famous for its Laburnum arch, the longest in the UK, which flowers in May and June. The garden is also celebrated for its link to the plant hunters of the early 1900s whose expeditions formed the base of the garden’s four National Collections of plants – Magnolia, Embothrium, Eucryphia and Rhododendron forrestii.
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a Grade I listed building, currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th century, and has several later additions. Bodysgallen was constructed as a tower house[citation needed] in the Middle Ages to serve as defensive support for nearby Conwy Castle. According to tradition, the site of Bodysgallen was the 5th century AD stronghold of Cadwallon Lawhir, King of Gwynedd, who had wide ranging exploits as far as Northumberland.