Bodnant Gardens, August 2024

Now, generally speaking I don’t usually want to go anywhere that’s just a ‘gardens’. It sounds boring and I could just go to a garden centre to see fancy plants, but with a National Trust pass, Bodnant Gardens was somewhere else close by that we could visit, and I was glad that we did!

Following our usual castle trail from Wrexham along the A55 North Wales coast road, we found our way to Bodnant Gardens, not far from Penrhyn Castle where we’d recently been. I still had to Satnav it though as I’m rubbish at remembering directions. We arrived on a bit of a grey and dreary morning to this stunning location, parked up in a car park halfway up a hill and walked down to the main entrance.

We stopped first to let the rain pass, so we grabbed some coffee, hot chocolates and babyccinos from the café. It’s a nice sized café with lots of sandwiches, drinks and treats. I had my eye on a summer fruits donut, but it was way too early for donuts – I’ll get one later though!

After the rain had passed, we took a quick hike back up to the toilet block behind the café to freshen up, and we were ready to go.

As I’ve mentioned, the car park, café and toilets are all on the hill before the main area, and when you get into Bodnant Gardens itself, it’s all pathways, hills and uneven ground, which looks amazing but isn’t easy to navigate if you have any walking difficulties. For anyone needing assistance, they did offer complimentary wheelchairs to help you get around, which can be found at the back of the café. A nice touch, as we’ve thought about bringing my mum here, but she wouldn’t be able to walk these paths or the distance around the gardens. With the free to use wheelchairs and accessible routes available, this would be much easier.

Exiting the café and following the path around and down past the rocks and through the tunnel, you arrive at the entrance to the gardens. Just a small visitors centre entryway here for you to check in and pick up a map. They were also having an Aardman Animation ‘Lloyd of the Flies’ Bug Hunt event, so the children were given a book, bug headgear (think Burger King crown) and we had to download an app to participate in some of it. FYI, signal was poor here, so this took forever to download!

Well, Bodnant Gardens is a lot bigger that you might think it is. We entered into a yard alongside the main hall, which is a private residence so no snooping around in there. Trees, bushes, flowers, landscaped hedges and more as far as the eye can see. We headed left from the main entrance into a series of garden paths which lead us to one of the highlights of Bodnant Gardens – The Laburnum Arch.

Unfortunately for us, we were here in August which isn’t the best time of year to see the Laburnum Arch, as all the flowers were, well, dead or dying. It’s a long arch tunnel, covered all along with Laburnum flowers (as you’d expect with a name like the Laburnum Arch). Best time to visit is May/June to see the arch in its full, bright yellow glory. It still looked cool even with dead flowers, but I’d imagine it’d be a million times better in full bloom.

We walked across an open meadow towards a wooded area and found the first of the bug hunt markers (to be fair, there were some earlier, but we’d walked around a different way). The majority of the hunt was QR coded signs that lead to fun interactive activities (such as augmented reality photo ops), and boards with details about some of the creatures you’d find, mixed in with a few practical pieces and craftwork displays like the giant woodlouse character made from tin. Nearby was a basket full of magnifying glasses and a host of toy bugs, beetles and spiders scattered around for the kids to investigate. Well, the kids had fun with all the activities, especially adding big antennae to pictures of us all via the app and spotting the maggot character pictures everywhere.

We didn’t intend on walking so far through the woodland area, but the views were so enticing that you felt compelled to carry on, making the pathways feel shorter than they looked on the map. We followed it around to a bridge where a family of ducks were enjoying a photoshoot with everyone who passed by. There were a few bridges of different styles and small streams to see in this area, with trees overhanging like something out of a painting. We stopped for a picnic on the bank overlooking the Skating Pond with the Boathouse in the distance.

At the top of the lake area there was a path leading to a children’s area, where there were more family based activities. The kids enjoyed some hoopla, running through the caterpillar tree tunnel and checking out the bug hotel. There were also some portaloos here, which was handy as you’re miles away from the toilets at this end and I didn’t see any doc leaves around if you got caught short.

We continued our walk along the lake, rejoined by the family of ducks who’d reappeared on the bank for more photos, completely unphased by everyone standing around them. At the end of this path was the Boathouse, a wooden hut with stunning views looking out onto the lake. To the left of it was a small bridge leading to a lock.

From here I found my favourite view. Looking downstream from here and under the canopy of trees, there was a perfect view of a small stone bridge, framed by crooked branches, with its reflection in the clear water of the slow steam passing beneath. Looked straight out of Lord of the Rings.

Keep following these paths, the views here are stunning. There’s lots of trees and flowers surrounding the stream with large stepping stones across the water. And yes, the kids just had to have a go and they were big steps too, I had to pretty much carry Elliott from stone to stone.

There are several different paths around the gardens, with many signposted as wheelchair accessible so you’re still able to see plenty of the gardens without struggling on the more difficult paths.

In the middle of this area, you’ll find a picture perfect scene with a large wooden bridge passing over a waterfall, leading to The Poem – a Victorian era mausoleum sitting higher in the gardens. There was a bit of a queue here to get the perfect snap.

With more bridges and streams, flowers and giant sequoias and stunning scenery as we passed, we ended up at the Old Mill area, so it was time for a break and an ice cream. We took a quick look around the Old Mill building which has one room packed with information boards with images and information detailing the history of Bodnant Gardens and the mill from the past 150 years, and another room offer views of the mill’s large waterwheel.

This area also has toilets, several picnic benches and seats and a small café serving drinks, snacks and ice cream, so we indulged in a few expensive tubs of ‘Red Boat’ ice cream, which was lovely. The Bara Brith flavour was a favourite. We are in Wales, after all. Rested and refreshed, we carried on up the path towards the Pin Mill.

We walked up and around the path, with me trying my hardest to take some decent pictures of my surroundings. We saw a building at the top of the path which just looked like a small chapel type building from the rear. As we walked around, we realised we were at the building known as The Pin Mill which overlooks a long stretch of lawn with a stunning lily covered pond at the centre. This right here was the postcard shot with the Pin Mill building at the back, pond at the centre and terraced rose garden to the left. It looked amazing.

We walked through the tiered garden paths, under archways and around the neatly planted flowerbeds, passing the statue of politician Walter McLaren and back towards the main house. More amazing pond views here with the house looking down to the lower gardens. There’s also a tree here that has suffered a disease at some point that they’re desperately trying to save. Part of it looks like they’ve chopped it apart and put it back together wrong!

Up the steps and we were finally back at the house, with large lawns outside and more statues, paths and water features to explore. We found a few more bug hunt posts here, so we scanned them with the app and took a last picture with Lloyd along with a few more pics of the house and grounds. There was also a wedding happening, with the happy couple and guests taking their pictures in the gardens. Shame it wasn’t a brighter day for them!

We exited the main gardens area on the hunt for an elusive fridge magnet and came across a few shops to look in. The first was a large craft shop with lots of locally produced pictures and postcards, ornaments, glass and woodwork items. The second was a Jewellery shop, again all locally produced and handcrafted items, with a table full of brightly coloured rocks outside. The main store was the Bodnant Garden Centre, which had all the items you’d expect at a garden centre, plus toys, books and Bodnant Garden souvenirs, so we grabbed a nice little wooden magnet, and we were suckered in to buying some Welsh cakes from by the till.

With that done, it was back up to the café for some drinks, that summer fruits donut I’d been eyeing up and some daffodil shortbread for the kids

If there’s one thing I love about National Trust properties (aside from a nice day out) it’s that parking is free. For everyone, not just members.

To enter, adults are priced from £16, Children £8 and a family pass is £46, so not bad for a family day out, but the annual pass is still great value if you’re planning a few trips to National Trust properties.

We loved our day at Bodnant Gardens, wandering through all of the idyllic pathways, picture perfect scenery and buildings like something from a fantasy film. The kids loved the bug hunt which kept them entertained. I don’t think anything I’ve written here does justice to how amazing a place it is, but I tried. We’ll definitely come here again at some point. I’d imagine it looks different with every season and we’d love to see the Laburnum Arch in all its glory!

Visit the National Trust website to find more information on Bodnant Gardens.