Bodnant lies in the Conwy valley ten kilometres south of Llandudno, and it is one of the great gardens of Britain — about eighty acres on a hillside looking west across the valley to the mountains of Snowdonia.
It was begun in 1874 by Henry Pochin, an industrial chemist, and developed over five generations of the same family — the McLarens, Lords Aberconway — before being given to the National Trust in 1949. Members of the family have continued to direct it since.
The Upper Garden, around the house, is formal: five great Italianate terraces cut into the hillside between 1904 and 1914, descending with lawns, pools, a canal terrace, and the Pin Mill — an eighteenth-century garden building brought from Gloucestershire in 1938 and rebuilt at the end of the canal.
The terraces have the view: the Conwy valley below and Snowdonia across it, which is why they were built facing that way.
The Dell, below, is the opposite — a steep wooded valley along the River Hiraethlyn, planted with enormous conifers, magnolias and rhododendrons, with a stream, waterfalls and the family mausoleum. It is cool, green and enclosed where the terraces are open and bright.
The garden has since expanded into the Far End, the Old Park, the Yew Dell and the Winter Garden, which extended the season considerably.
Bodnant’s most famous feature is a 55-metre tunnel of laburnum, trained over a metal arch, planted in 1880.
For roughly three weeks in late May and early June it flowers, and the whole thing becomes a corridor of hanging yellow. It is one of the most photographed pieces of planting in Britain, and in that window Bodnant is very busy indeed.
Outside those three weeks it is a green tunnel and the garden’s other eighty acres are quieter and just as good.
February–March: the Winter Garden, snowdrops, witch hazel, early rhododendrons.
April–May: magnolias — Bodnant holds champion specimens — camellias and the great rhododendron collection, which is among the best in the country.
Late May–early June: the Laburnum Arch.
Summer: the terraces, roses, herbaceous borders, waterlilies.
Autumn: the Dell’s acers and the Old Park.
Bodnant holds several National Collections and a large number of champion trees.
Admission charged; free to National Trust members.
Time: two to four hours. It is bigger than people expect.
Terrain: it is a hillside garden, and the Dell involves a substantial descent and climb. Comfortable shoes; there are benches.
Access: the upper terraces have accessible routes and there is a mobility vehicle service; the Dell is steep and stepped in places.
Facilities: two cafés, a shop, a plant centre — the plant sales are excellent — and toilets.
Parking: on site, free to members.
Open most of the year, with the Winter Garden extending the season.
Tal-y-Cafn, on the A470 in the Conwy valley, about twenty minutes from Llandudno by road.
By train: Tal-y-Cafn station on the Conwy Valley line is about a mile away — the line runs from Llandudno Junction to Betws-y-Coed and Blaenau Ffestiniog and is a fine journey in itself.
Roughly three weeks in late May and early June. It is very busy in that window.
About eighty acres, split between formal terraces above and a wooded dell below.
Two to four hours — most people underestimate it.
The upper terraces have accessible routes and there is a mobility vehicle; the Dell is steep and stepped.
Yes — Tal-y-Cafn on the Conwy Valley line is about a mile away.