Hi there everyone 😀
In June we had a week at the lodge with mum … starting off with a stop off on the way for a lovely visit at
Powis Castle, somewhere that none of us had ever visited before …
While we were away we were determined to make the most of the weather and we spent our first full day exploring the
Ynysypandy Slate Mill … which most definitely did not disappoint …
We also fit in a visit to Penrhyn Castle, where our main focus was to have a look at the walled garden. Well … after our visit to the glorious gardens and herbaceous borders of Powis Castle we were more than a little disappointed …
It was a bit of an effort for us all to walk to the walled garden and it just wasn’t what we were expecting at all. It’s on a very steep slope with lots of steps and not much by the way of flowers at all. It’s a bit more like an arboretum than what I would call a traditional walled garden …
There were a few pops of colour …
… and the gunnerers down the bottom are impressive …
… but it is not somewhere I will be making the effort to visit again. Strangely for us … at Penrhyn it is definitely the castle that is the draw.
We did make the most of the sunshine on the way back to the lodge though … with a stop off for lunch at Y Felinheli where we found a good spot overlooking the Menai for our picnic …
In the spirit of June being a good time for visiting gardens we also managed a return visit to Plas Brodanw … one of the first places that we visited when we first took ownership of the lodge a couple of years ago.
It’s a lovely little garden, well worth a visit, and we all really enjoyed it. I took plenty of photos and will tell you a bit more about it in a separate post … but for now here are a couple of my favourites …
On the way back from Plas Brodanw we called in at the Tan y Bwlch steam railway station just in time to catch the steam train leaving …
It’s a lovely little station and we just had a gentle potter, and a sit in the sunshine, before heading for home …
Our last full day was intended to include a visit to Plas yn Rhiw, a small NT garden not too far away, but we were gutted to find they didn’t open on a Friday … bit of bad planning by me there I’m afraid.
Anyway … it was a lovely day so we ended up heading into Aberdaron for an ice cream and a bit of a wander …
We had plenty of time to catch the hedgerow views on the way back as it was rush hour …
That was it then … the week went by really quickly. After a quick stop along the seafront in Criccieth for breakfast sausage rolls … which is becoming a bit of a habit …
… we decided to head home via Llangollen, finally getting to call in at the other Plas Newydd for a pit stop.
This was a real treat and is a lovely spot for a stop off with plenty of places to picnic or a cafe. There’s not a lot of parking but it’s free to enter the gardens and I’m sure we will be visiting again …
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