Route: Dalemain Gardens
Area: Eastern Lake District
Date of walk: 28th August 2017
Walkers: Andrew, Gilly, Phil and Denise
Distance: 1 mile
Weather: Sunny
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 a short walk to the village of Dacre which passes by 14th century Dacre Castle
Just before the entrance we passed by Deer Park Cottage, beyond which we saw several fallow deer, part of a large herd which live on an adjoining part of the estate. Before entering the gardens we couldn’t resist buying some marmalade – Dalemain famously hosts the World Marmalade Awards, a competition to find the best marmalades in the world
Dalemain Mansion is open for visits but we didn’t have time for that today, so walked past the mansion into the gardens, admiring the wonderful views over the parkland in the direction of nearby Ullswater. The entrance into the garden is dominated by a magnificent Silver Fir which has the largest girth in the UK and which was a gift from Joseph Banks, the botanist, in the 1840s. After admiring the Elizabethan knot garden we walked beside the herbaceous borders to the end of the fomal section. From here we descended through Lob’s Wood to Dacre Beck, passing by the topiary dragon which guards the low garden
We then retraced our steps back to the start, and the end of another visit to this special place
For other walks here, visit my Find Walks page and enter the name in the ‘Search site’ box
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Red squirrel in the rain a few days earlier
On the way to the entrance to the gardens we pass by the Great Barn, which dates back to the 16th century and is now home to a small museum about agriculture and fell ponies in the Lake District
Dalemain House, which has remained in the ownership of the Hasell family since its purchase by Sir Edward Hasell in 1679, and was opened to the public in 1977
View to the eastern fells across the adjoining parkland
Herbaceous border at the front of the house
More views over the borrowed landscape...
The famous silver fir, the biggest of its type in the British Isles
The Elizabethan knot garden...
The borders in the walled garden, which were attracting numerous butterflies today...
...a comma...
...and a walled brown
At the end of the formal area we descend to the lower garden
The sleeping dragon
We climb back to the main garden
We return via this avenue of clipped holly
The end of another visit to this wonderful place
