National Trust :: Crook Hall Gardens

Hi there everyone 😀

Because of the heatwave, we’d skipped our usual National Trust stop on our journey to Durham, not wanting to leave a car full of fresh food baking in the heat. That meant we were keen to make the most of the couple of hours we had before needing to get ready to meet up with the rest of our party.

Having dropped everything off at The Mayoress and transferred all the fresh stuff from cool boxes to the fridge we pretty much headed straight out for Crook Hall Gardens.

It was literally a few minutes drive from where we were staying … right on the edge of the city. Our short drive there gave us our first views of the cathedral and the river …

It really was a lovely place to visit, with a series of interlinking gardens, set against the backdrop of a Grade 1 listed medieval hall. There is a maze, walled gardens, a wildlife pond, lots of cool shady seating areas and views of the cathedral.

It was our first visit and we couldn’t wait to explore. As ever … I took lots of photographs so sit back and enjoy a wander round the garden with us.

From the moment we entered the garden we were enthralled … by rose covered arches …

… swathes of wildflowers …

… and stunning summer perennial borders …

Our first real stop was the walled gardens … which were looking absolutely fabulous … 

The walled gardens are a joy to wander through … with almost hidden paths and gateways leading deeper into the gardens … revealing more and more surprises and colour around every turn …

The views looking back up the gardens to the hall were sooooo pretty …

Once out of the walled gardens we couldn’t resist a selfie with the toad …

… before heading through the vegetable garden …

… and into the wellbeing garden … where we just couldn’t resist sitting for a while …

We moved onto the wildlife pond … where we found a lovely shady spot with a perfectly placed bench to sit and enjoy the view and a welcome cool breeze for a few minutes …

We then made our way through a row of interlinking gardens starting with the silver and white garden …

… moving on through the orchard and the Shakespeare garden …

We ended up in the Cathedral garden … where the shape and vibrancy of the beds are designed to echo the stained glass windows of the cathedral itself …

There were some lovely views of the cathedral from here too …

By now time was getting on and we really needed to get back to get ready to meet up with everyone for the evening.

Crook Hall was a really lovely garden and somewhere we would definitely want to visit again when we have a bit more time. It would definitely be easy to while away the best of a day there 😀

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Durham in a Heatwave :: Day 1

Hi there everyone 😀

If you’ve followed my blog for a while you will know that once a year we get together with old work friends for a few days away.

We’ve been doing it for a fair old while and have been all over the place. This year we were having our get together in Durham … somewhere Martin and I have never been … and we were really looking forward to catching up and exploring somewhere new.

Our time away happened to drop in the midst of a June heatwave … but Durham was predicted to be a few degrees cooler than home … so we were ready to make the most of the good weather.

The car was loaded to the gills … with lots of essentials and plenty of ‘just in case’ stuff. As we were hosting one night … the camping fridge was bought out of hibernation and, instead of stopping off on the way as we normally do, we were making a beeline for our accommodation …’

Luckily we had a really nice easy journey and were able to check in early so, once the food was all transferred to the fridge, we headed straight out for a bit of exploring before meeting up with the others later on.

We were heading for Crooks Hall … a National Trust garden … pretty much on the edge of the city. Our short drive took us over the river, with some fabulous views of the cathedral in the bright sunshine … 

We were already very much thinking Durham had been a good choice for this year’s catch up.

Crooks Hall really was a treat. Loads of colourful borders, lots of small gardens within the garden, a beautiful walled garden, views of the cathedral and the old hall itself. I took so many photographs that it is most definitely worthy of a post on its own so I will tell you more about that later …

Once back at The Mayoress, which was definitely going to be a very comfortable little bolt hole for a few days, it was time to get ready to meet up with the rest of ‘The Gang’ …

We were walking to a local pub, renowned for its lovely beer garden, and it was literally five minutes from where we were staying. I couldn’t resist taking a few photos of these glorious wildflowers on the way …

We were soon settled in the garden … with the others on the way …

They weren’t long and, after lots of hellos and hugs all round, we settled in for a good old catch up and the first of the holiday selfies … which has become a bit of a tradition …

It was soon time to move on to Zen, the Thai restaurant where we were having dinner. It was a bit pricy, but the food was fabulous and it was a lovely way to end the first day of our break …

After a very nice meal we walked back to The Mayoress in the warm sunshine … which sounds just lovely, but did end up making for a bit of a fairly strenuous activity and … there may just have been a bit of a sit on a garden wall at some point for a very much needed breather 🙈🙈🙈

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Lodge Life :: June 2026

Hi there everyone 😀

We spent just a week at the lodge in June … with no visitors.

As usual, if the weather forecast were to be believed, we were expecting lots of wet and miserable weather. Also as usual … the forecast got it totally wrong and we ended up having some really lovely days.

We arrived on a Thursday afternoon and, as we believed the Friday would be the only dry day, we had a big day out planned … hoping to make the best of it.

We were heading for Bodnant Gardens, about an hour away. We were hoping to catch the last of the laburnum arch and the best of the roses.

We had the loveliest of days … the laburnum was a bit past its best, but the roses were spectacular …

We ended up walking about 8000 steps, so feel the visit is definitely worthy of its own ‘Walk with Us’ post.

On Saturday we stayed local, with a visit to Lavender House and the gallery at Llanbedrog …

The latest gallery exhibition was fascinating, with each piece created by a different artist, from the wood of a beech tree that was brought down in the gallery grounds in a winter storm in January 2024. The tree had stood for an estimated 150 - 200 years, shaped by the coastal winds and weather of the Llŷn Peninsula.

On Sunday the weather didn’t look good but we decided we would go out anyway … and if we got wet then so be it. We were on a hunt for a waterfall … a new one we’d not been to before … from our Hidden Waterfalls walk book.

It was a nice short walk from a roadside lay-by, taking in the waterfall and a walk through forestry land and the waterfall was a real find … and the rain did not materialise … you can read more about the walk here …

On Monday we ended up walking up to the Stwlan Dam. It was not the plan … it was quite a hard walk … and it was another place we had never imagined ourselves as getting to see … but we are so glad that we did …

After we’d finished our walk and enjoyed our packed lunch of salmon and cucumber rolls … I know, fancy … we decided to call in at the osprey centre on the way back to the lodge.

Since we visited the last time we were here there has been lots of activity with eggs hatching right, left and centre, so we wanted to have another look.

This time we were lucky enough to see both Elen and her partner Teifi on their next through the telescope …

We didn’t stay long but we did get to see the chicks in another nest on the webcam.

We had one more stop on our way back. After four years we finally managed to be in the right place at the right time to meet up with friends who have a place on the Aberdunant Hall Holiday Park. We spent a very relaxing hour or so on the hotel terrace chilling out and catching up. It was a lovely way to finish off a very full and eventful day …

After such a busy and strenuous day walking up to the dam we spent the last day of our June break just hanging around the lodge … not doing very much at all.

Although Martin did finish off fitting some new outside lights …

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