Route: Dalemain
Area: Eastern Lake District
Date of walk: 28th August 2017
Walkers: Andrew and Gilly
Distance: 1 mile
Weather: Light cloud
Dalemain is one of our favourite gardens. We first visited over 20 years ago and have been back many times since. There’s a magical quality about the garden and a feeling that this is a space that is lived in and loved by its owners. There are several public footpaths in the vicinity and a visit to the garden can be combined with a walk – click here for one such walk which we enjoyed earlier in the year. Today we only had time for a visit to the gardens
Just before the entrance we passed by Deer Park Cottage, home to the retired gamekeeper Jimmy Dey who has lived here for many years. We’ve chatted to Jimmy before and as we passed by he beckoned us into the cottage garden, and we spent an enjoyable time with him hand feeding some of the local birds, as well as some fallow deer, part of a large herd which live on an adjoining part of the estate
We then entered the gardens, which were looking as lovely as ever, and I hope that the photos which follow will convey the beauty. It was another wonderful visit to this special place and I’m sure we’ll be back next year
For other walks here, visit my Find Walks page and enter the name in the ‘Search site’ box
Click on the icon below for a location map
Scroll down – or click on any photo to enlarge it and you can then view as a slideshow
Red squirrel in the garden before we set off from west to east of the district
Deer Park Cottage, near the entrance to Dalemain Gardens, where Jimmy Dey invited us to come in and see the deer in the field beyond
Fallow deer in the field next to Jimmy's garden...
Probably the worst photo I've posted on this site - out of focus and wrong shutter speed - but it does record Gilly hand feeding a deer...
...and now a great tit. Thanks Jimmy, that was a wonderful start to our visit
We walk past the front of Dalemain Mansion to enter into the gardens...
The Terrace Garden...
This Silver Fir is thought to be the oldest in the country, planted about 1840, and having a girth of 26 feet
The Elizabethan Knot Garden...
The Rose Walk
A few close ups of the plants in the borders...
Dahlia
Agapanthus
Turk's Cap Lily
Peacock butterfly on sedum
Summerhouse at the end of the border, and from here we descend to the Low Garden
Green dragon
Pond in the Low Garden
The Giantess sculpture
Dacre Beck, with Little Mell Fell in the distance
We reach the furthest corner of the garden...
We retrace our steps and walk back along the Upper Lawn
An old Bramley apple tree
Avenue of clipped hollies
Back in the magical Elizabethan Knot Garden
The ancient silver fir again...
We pass by Dalemain Mansion again on the way to the exit
And finally the Great Barn, built in the 16th century, at the end of another wonderful visit to one of our favourite gardens
