Bodnant Garden
Our journey is now into North Wales where we plan to spend the rest of the week. We soon gain motorways to leave Manchester behind and then the A55 along the North Wales coast. Much of the rest of the holiday is rail related but today we are visiting Bodnant Gardens which are a part of the National Trust therefore assisting to defray the membership cost previously mentioned.
2024 marks 150 years since Henry Davis Pochin purchased the Bodnant Estate. His wealth came from a process to use china clay to improve the quality of paper, owning South Wales coal pits plus Cornish clay pits which (much later) were acquired by English China Clays. Bodnant Gardens was effectively his retirement project and it subsequently passed to his daughter and her husband who were responsible for funding the travels of plant collectors bringing foreign plants, particularly rhododendrons and magnolias to the estate.
One of the first part of the gardens created was the Laburnum walk , which was part of Pochin garden, where we pause briefly before continuing around the gardens. It is of course a little late for most of the rhododendrons this year – but they were obviously magnificent. The roses are however blooming madly and there is a long walk through the wooded area which given the temperature is welcome.
We stay at the higher levels – it is possible to descend to river level for a better view of the waterfall – but all the paths are marked steeply graded and so we avoid those routes.
When we park I am quite a way up the hill in what appears to be “overflow” parking. When I return it is notable that cars have needed to park much further into the overflow area – so I would on that basis judge it to be a busy day at the Gardens but it never felt crowded or difficult to wander around.
Our destination is Chateau Rhianfa which is on Anglesey as it convenient for the next couple of days. Our bedroom has a view out over the Menai Strait which is the channel between Anglesey and the rest of Wales.
To reach Anglesey we pass over the Menai Bridge. The Menai Suspension Bridge is currently undergoing significant inspection works to ensure that all of the suspension cables and their securings remain safe – after all the bridge, designed by Thomas Telford, opened in 1826. It is Grade 1 listed and carries the local traffic as the main road now runs over the adjacent Britannia Bridge which was designed solely as a rail bridge by George Stephenson and re-engineered following a major fire in 1970 to the current double deck structure.