Exploring :: Powis Castle NT

Hi there everyone 😀

We had a week with mum at the lodge in June and we started our break with a stop off at Powis Castle on the way … and what a treat it was.

None of us had ever visited before and, other than knowing it wasn’t too far out of our way, we really had no idea what to expect.

Our hearts did drop a bit when we were on approach and got our first view of the castle. It looked beautiful … but it was right at the top of a pretty steep hill.

We were really happy to find that the drive took us pretty much to the top of the hill and there was parking not far from the castle entrance.

It was a lovely day and we decided we would start our visit in the gardens, taking our picnic with us.

The garden is made up of a series of terraces, with some fabulous herbaceous borders and views across the surrounding countryside and back up to the castle.

These were our views from the top terrace …

We opted to have our lunch under the shelter on the aviary terrace… the next terrace down …

Then we were down to the orangery terrace, which was beautiful …

The borders were just stuffed full of gorgeous and huge plants … with everything looking fabulous in the sunshine …

There was also some pretty wicked topiary …

By the time we hit the lower terrace our knees were certainly starting to feel it but there was just so much to see that we couldn’t resist …

In the distance we could see the borders of the croquet lawn and just knew we had to make that one last push … especially when another visitor told us there was a coffee shop down at the bottom 😀

We went via the box walk to the formal garden where we absolutely loved the climbing roses. I would love to do something like this at home …

We were then at the border of the croquet lawn which we’d seen from a distance. It was spectacular …

None of us had ever seen such tall and strong foxgloves and delphiniums … they were absolutely stunning …

We could see that the next big showing was going to be hollyhocks which were not yet in flower but were also going to be huge.

We were now definitely ready for a breather so we made our way along the bottom of the garden … via the fountain garden … and the yew walk …

… to the cafe, where we had a bit of a breather before making our way back up to the top of the garden.

We opted for the step free way back which took us alongside the great lawn in the front of the castle …

… and then up through the daffodil paddock. There was no sign of daffodils today but there were plenty of these orchids …

It was a bit of a slog back up to the entrance of the garden and we were definitely ready for a sit down by the time we made it to the courtyard of the castle …

We took a while to take in the views across the garden and the countryside …

… before heading inside.

We couldn’t take any photos inside the castle and, after being outside in the gardens in the sunshine, it all felt a bit dark and gloomy.

We basically just had a quick wander round before getting back outside into the sunshine and heading on our way.

We’d had a lovely visit. For us the gardens were definitely the star of the show … which we often find is the case.

I’m sure we will be back … it’s a great stop off point and I definitely want to see those hollyhocks 😀

🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻