Beautiful Britain - Osborne House, Isle of Wight

Hi there everyone

I can't quite believe I still have posts to share with you from our holiday on the Isle of Wight back in the Autumn ... for a small island there is so much to do and we saw so many beautiful places.

Today, I finally get to share our visit to Osborne House with you. It's definitely worthy of a full day visit and we managed to fit it in when our friends were spending the week with us. We were quite lucky with the weather, though it was fairly dull for part of the day and rain was forecast for the afternoon.

It's quite a pricey place to visit and our friends had managed to take advantage of a discount available for buying tickets in advance when booking their ferry crossing. We got dead lucky too, as our Gardeners' World, two for one ticket was valid.

It must be one of the island's most popular places to visit and when we arrived the admissions area was packed. We were all quite excited and we picked up our tickets and a map and decided to head for the beach first, to try and avoid the rain that was due later.

There is a good path down to the beach and just as we set out we had our first full view of the house, which I can only describe as spectacular ... it was just beautiful and we knew we weren't going to be disappointed with our visit ...

It is a fair walk down to the beach, but there is a courtesy bus if you feel like taking the easier option. We decided to walk and then perhaps get the bus back. It was totally worth making the effort to walk, both for the views looking back at the house ...

... and for the first reveal of the beach ...
We got to see Queen Victoria's bathing hut ...
... ... and found the perfect spot to sit and chill for a few minutes, just enjoying the view. Never has a truer word been said ...

As the weather was still holding we decided we would take the path up (and it definitely was up) from the beach to the Swiss Cottage.

The Swiss Cottage was originally built by Prince Albert as a play house for the royal children. It is now a museum holding lots of different bits and pieces that they collected.
As well as the museum there is a trail around the gardens where the Prince and Princesses grew their own vegetables ...
Whilst our friends were very good and walked back to the main house we decided we would rest our legs for a bit and we waited for the courtesy bus.

As there was still no rain, the next stop was the walled garden ...
Being well into the Autumn we weren't expecting too much, but we were pleasantly surprised. There was still a fair amount of colour to be seen ...
... ... though it was easy to see how amazing it would look at the height of full Summer ...


It wasn't just the flowers providing the interest and colour. There was plenty of edible planting to catch the eye too ...
Talking of edible, we then decided it was time for a bit of a break for lunch. We headed for The Terrace restaurant, hoping to be able to sit outside and enjoy some of the delights promised on the web site ...

"Famous in the world of desserts - Osborne is associated with the Victoria Sponge, the Battenburg Cake, Beatrice Cakes and Osborne Pudding."

I was definitely looking forward to a piece of Queen Victoria's Battenburg Cake.

Sadly, we were told we couldn't eat in The Terrace restaurant unless we wanted to partake of their full lunch menu. We were all a bit disappointed but decided to head back to the Petty Officers' Quarters, where, we were informed, snacks were available.

This was really the only disappointing part of the day. Yes, snacks were available, but nothing particularly inspiring that you couldn't have bought from a motorway service station and definitely no Battenburg or Victoria Sponge. Queen Victoria would not have been amused 😒

Following our adequate, but lacklustre, lunch we were making our way back to the main house when the rain that had been threatening all day finally put in an appearance. We had timed it perfectly and made our way inside.

We were all excited about seeing the famous Durbar Room where we were also to be treated to a display of the costumes from the upcoming Victoria and Abdul movie.

This visit was the one time where Martin's dodgy knees gave us a real benefit. He had his walking stick with him and one of the guides let us take the lift rather than the stairs. Well, this gave us the chance to see some fabulous views across the terrace and down to the sea that we would have missed, had we taken the conventional route.

There is lots to see inside the house, but photography is a bit tricky. Flash isn't allowed and the lighting makes it difficult to see things at their best. I did manage to take a few pictures that captured the moment, including this one of the royal childrens' nursery ...
The central staircase was pretty spectacular too ...

As were the light fittings ...

Finally, we were in the corridor which could only lead us to one place ...

Yes, we ended up in the place that we'd all been so excited to see ... The Durbar Room ...

We weren't disappointed, it was stunning ...

It was incredibly busy, as you can imagine, with lots of people looking at the display of costumes from the upcoming film ...

Our patience paid off and I managed to capture a few shots, though again, the light was tricky, especially when some of the costumes were displayed in front of the windows ...

There was only one place left for us to explore. Thankfully the rain had passed so it was outside to wander across the terrace garden.

There were beautiful views in every direction ... down to the beach ...

... of the planting, which was mainly purple verbena, red geraniums and brightly coloured cannas, which all worked really well together ...

In my opinion the best views to be had though, were looking back at the house, which just looked beautiful from every angle ...

Apologies for the photo overload, but it really did just look lovely from every direction. Just one more I promise ...

So that was Osborne House. We were shattered, we'd walked plenty, seen lots and there was just time for a quick purchase from the plant centre as a memento of our visit, before heading for home.

We bought three purple irises, which have since been planted in the garden. No sign of them yet, but hopefully they will bring us a smile when we see them in the summer and remember our trip ...

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