Spring Holiday Part Six - Mevagissey & The Lost Gardens Of Heligan

 Cornwall is one of those places where time seems to stop. It's probably one of the most laid back places in the UK, which I think is why so many people go there for their holidays. Including us!

We made an early morning visit to Mevagissey, one of Cornwall's most famous fishing towns. It was gloriously quiet, and we felt like we had the place to ourselves! And to be fair, we pretty much did!

It's a charming place, with a lovely harbour full of both fishing & pleasure boats. A lot of them were your typical Cornish fishing boats in bright colours.

I don't think I'd be a very good fisherman though, I'm clumsy enough as it is and I'd be afraid of falling overboard and getting caught in the nets! 

We had a walk down to the harbour entrance which was deserted, and got some lovely photos there. Well worth arriving earlier and beating the crowds if you want to do some photography! James took a load of pictures with his proper photographer camera, while I did the best I could with my phone.

Both the water and the skies were gray, so almost merged together into one, creating this very gloomy but mysterious effect!

A view back into the harbour, and the town spreading up the sides of the hills. We were still the only ones here, how mad is that?

Apparently the seagulls here are vicious, but they also are rebels, fancy walking across the wet cement before it's dried yet!

We had a further little explore in the town, there was lots of independent shops, and I treated myself to an ice cream. I'm on holiday, it's never too early for an ice cream! 

We then headed across to the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Somewhere James had been before, and he had enjoyed it so much he wanted to return. I'd never been before, but was absolutely blown away by the place. Despite it being March, the garden was awash with colour, almost like it was summer, in particular the Rhododendrons, whos striking colours accompanied throughout our explorations in the gardens. I love Rhododendrons, my grandparents have several beautiful ones in their garden, including one that is peach in colour.

The Rhododendron walk is sublime, there's so many colours, this lilac one was simply gorgeous, and under each of them where their woody branches lay was a carpet of fallen petals.

I think what makes the gardens unique is the story of them. Originally created by the Tremayne family several hundreds of years ago, they were gradually developed & expanded, growing in size, shape & increasing the amount of different plants. A large team of gardeners was needed to keep the gardens in good condition, but things started to become difficult in the First World War. Sixteen of the gardening team died during the war, a number which in the austerity & recovery period afterwards was hard to replace. The gardens began to enter into a decline, and after the war the house was sold & converted to flats. The gardens were simply abandoned, and became wild. However, interest in the gardens began to rise, and by the 90's a restoration plan & attempt had been made.

This little robin kept following us about, not sure if he was guiding us or keeping an eye on us!

After many years of neglect, the gardens have now been fully restored in all their glorious splendor. And we are lucky enough to see them not only at their best condition for possibly the best part of a century, but that they are as close to possible of how they were designed and laid out originally. I wonder if the Tremayne family ever came back to visit, they would feel like it was still their gardens & would recognise it. 

The main green, flanked with Rhododendrons, with the many different shades of red & pinks.

A closer look at some of the flowers.

There's also plenty of Camellia's as well, with their fun variegated petals. 

There's lots of different little area's and terraces that are nice to sit and stop at for a moment. This one was really lovely, we were the only ones here and it was nice to sit and just take a minute to enjoy the surroundings.

Now this may not seem like much, and at the time I wasn't too sure about it, but this is apparently the only pineapple pit left in England. Basically, the fruit never lasted long enough to be shipped here, so people would build these pits, put the plant in and then stuff it full of horse manure. As the horse manure decomposed, it would give off a lot of heat, so much so that it then made the unit warm enough to grow pineapples in. Such was the demand for pineapples for the Victorians, that there were actually shops where you could rent a pineapple and then carry it around with you, showing it off to people. How barmy is that?

Further delights included the Italian garden with it's reflecting pool, and sticking our heads into the greenhouse to see what was being grown there, and also to warm ourselves up a little bit!

There's chicken's to make friends with, these gorgeous looking hens were beautiful with their honey coloured feathers, and I had a moment of being eagle eyed, spotting this lovely multi-coloured cracked tulip in amongst it's single coloured siblings. 

We continued to explore the gardens, and headed down to the jungle area, which as its name suggests, was quite the jungle! It was amazing though, there's a wide variety of different plants, as well as a Burma rope bridge!

Apparently it's the longest Burma rope bridge in the UK and takes you almost 100ft above the ground, giving you a birdseye view of the flora & fauna around you. If you've got a nervous disposition, then it's probably not for you. It's perfectly safe, although there's no shame in admitting I made James go first!

The same robin from earlier, who seemed to have been following us around the gardens!

A view from the path, looking back over the rope bridge. It's one way, so we went down, did a loop and then back up the other side to cross the bridge again, before returning back towards the main garden.

The bridge is not for the faint hearted, but don't worry, it took the weight of both me & James with no problem at all, even as we crossed it a second time! We enjoyed a final look at the pond at the bottle of the jungle, with its red rhododendrons, various ferns and the watery plants & gunnera (so James tells me) surrounding the pond. 

We headed back up the main gardens, where we grabbed ourselves a very late lunch, and sat outside gazing at this cute little temple. I was so glad we had visited, it had been a fantastic experience and I'd loved every second here. Tickets for the gardens start at £28.80 for an adult, which considering we had spent most of the day here and not once felt bored I thought was a good price. If you're thinking of visiting, or you want to know more, check out their website @heligan.com, they also have lots of events through the year as well, so may be worth combining your visit that way.

It was just a case of driving back to St Austell where we were staying the night, and it got me thinking, how I would love to own a massive set of gardens like this. I expressed this to James, who then reminded me of all the back issues and how I can't get back up unassisted after kneeling down, and that extinguished that idea. Maybe I'd have to work in the gift shop or as a guide!