Ruskin’s Brantwood garden is a gem not to miss by Vivienne Lewis

The Lake District must be one of the loveliest places to visit in the autumn, with coloured tints on the trees and mountains near the masses of water. There are still some great gardens to see, many of them very historic, some remaining open all year. So pack your walking boots and explore!

Brantwood

John Ruskin, the great art historian, social reformer and the mentor of the Pre-Raphaelite painters in the mid-nineteenth century, began to make this spectacular garden 130 years ago. It still is a gem, and wonderful to visit at any time of year.
Walking through 250 acres of landscape, visitors approach eight garden areas that have been restored at Brantwood. ‘Brant’ is Norse for steep, so giving a clue to the history and topography of the place. If you enjoy walking, the far reaches of the estate are the places to enjoy, with lakeshore meadows rising through woodland to high open fells.
The Zig-Zaggy, a series of meandering paths designed by Ruskin and created during the restoration of the garden, depicts Dante’s Purgatorial Mount in the Divine Comedy, in an allegorical fashion. The High Walk is a Victorian viewing platform from which the views are amazing, especially at this time of year.
From the Professor’s Garden, Ruskin’s favourite spot, the woodland pond and the harbour walk to the waterfalls, the herb garden full of native plants and the collection of British ferns around an ice-house, there is variety and vitality in this garden.
The Trellis Walk has fine herbaceous borders that trace British plant history from medieval times via William Morris and the Victorians to the present day. There is a huge contrast between that area and the Moorland Garden, the site of a long abandoned experiment in upland agriculture. It has terraces and reservoirs remaining, but no flowers.
See Ruskin’s house as well as his garden. During the year there are talks, concerts, open-air theatrical performances, family trails and childrens’ activity workshops and a Craft Fair on 14th and 15th November. From Easter until October there are guided walks round the estate on several afternoons per week at no extra charge.

Location: Brantwood, Coniston LA21 8AD. On the east side of Coniston Water, off the B5285, following the signs. Coniston Launch provides a daily service to Brantwood and other points round the lake. The steam yacht ‘Gondola’ sails regularly from Coniston Pier.
Open: daily (as is the house) throughout the summer, 11am – 6pm; November to March Wed – Sun, except Christmas Day and Boxing Day, 11am – 4.30pm.
Admission: £3.75 for garden only, £5.50 for house and garden, £4 students, £1 for children under 16. Dogs allowed on leads.
Telephone: 01539 441396
Website: www.brantwood.org.uk

Muncaster Castle

Don’t expect to see many flower beds at Muncaster – but you’ll get drama instead.
From the grand terrace snaking away from the castle, there are wonderful panoramic views over the countryside to the Esk estuary and over to Scafell, England’s highest mountain. Ruskin called the view the ‘Gateway to Paradise’.
Muncaster Castle’s Grade II* garden is one to look out from as well as to enjoy within its leafy boundaries. The ancient castle with a medieval pele tower built on Roman foundations, was later expanded with Victorian additions. The terrace is in two parts, separated by a ravine, and at one end there is a Victorian summerhouse.
Although the spectacular setting and views make Muncaster worth a visit at any time, it is at its glorious best in the late spring and autumn. In the spring there are the pretty colours of the rhododendrons for which the garden is best known, alongside cherries and magnolias. In the autumn the trees blaze with colour, particularly the acers.
On this open site there was a need to provide shelter from the westerlies and in the eighteenth century a lot of tree planting did just that. Then between the wars of the last century Sir John Ramsden, grandfather of the present owner, subscribed to the plant hunting expeditions of Frank Ludlow, George Sherriff and Frank Kingdon Ward, who brought back wonderful rhododendrons and other flowering shrubs from Nepal.
Muncaster is in that part of Scotland that has perfect conditions for rhododendrons: acid soil, a moist, warm climate with high rainfall and craggy settings to set off these plants which can grow to a vast size.  
The Owl Centre has 200 birds of prey on display, and there is a meadow vole maze. In the grounds you may spy a red squirrel or a deer. Before Christmas there are special events – look at the website.
 
Location: Muncaster Castle, Ravenglass CA18 1RQ. One mile south east of Ravenglass on the A595.
Open: Gardens are open daily until 2nd November 10.30am – 6pm, then 11am – 4pm Mon – Fri and weekends until 21st November. Castle: March – 2nd November. Dogs allowed on leads.
Admission: To gardens, maze and owl centre: £8 adults, £6 children (under 5s free), £26 family. Small extra admission charge for the castle
Telephone: 01229 717614
Website: www.muncaster.co.uk

Brockhole

Thomas Mawson is one of Cumbria’s best known Arts and Crafts garden designers, with many gardens in the region surviving more than a century after he planned them.
His formal five-acre gardens at Brockhole by Lake Windermere, form the centrepiece of the Lake District National Park Visitor Centre.
The Centre is a rich source of information and activities for both adults and children, but if you just want to enjoy an Edwardian Mawson garden (Grade II listed) in a wonderful setting, then visit Brockhole which is open all year.
Mawson designed the gardens with his architect colleague Dan Gibson, who designed the house, to sit within the framework of the lake and the Langdale Pikes beyond. They were commissioned by a Manchester silk merchant, Henry Gaddum, a cousin of Beatrix Potter, who was a frequent visitor. The house is now the Centre’s headquarters.
Mawson loved the formality of the Italianate style and aimed always to link house and garden. Brockhole’s high view-giving terraces of old-fashioned roses, herbaceous borders and a shrubbery drop down to a wildflower meadow edged with woodland.
This may sound like a summer garden, but the kitchen and herb garden has been restored, which will still be interesting in the autumn, and there is a show of late colour in the maples, Chilean hollies and eucryphias.
Originally a nurseryman, Mawson designed gardens not only in Britain, but in Europe and Canada.  Dyffryn, near Cardiff, is an excellent example of his work. Graythwaite Hall, on the western side of Windermere, is another of his Cumbrian gardens to keep in mind – best seen on a spring visit.

Location: Brockhole is halfway between Ambleside and Windermere on the A591.
Open: Daily, dawn – 6pm. Café and shop, open daily, spring to end of October, 10am – 5pm.
Admission: Free (a parking fee applies)
Telephone: 01539 446601
Website: www.lake-district.gov.uk