The Alnwick Garden prides itself on its accessibility but what a bumpy ride!
We enjoyed our visit to The Alnwick Garden: the weather was sunny. the walled garden is lovely and it was good to see somewhere with accessibility designed into it from the start but some of the path surfaces were so bumpy that it was rather annoying. There are lots of very positive reviews on Euan’sGuide so I feel a bit ”bah, humbug” being negative but I found the constant jolting very tiring.
A couple of years ago, I think I would just have been grateful that somewhere was accessible. Now, I tend to question why places aren’t more accessible and what could be done about it? I’ve emailed the gardens on the subject.
The walled Ornamental Garden at the top of the slope is very attractive as is the Rose Garden and there were lovely wild flowers by the side of the path as you came down through the Cherry Orchard, but that’s not enough to draw me back. It’s designed to be very child-friendly and there were plenty of children really enjoying the little streams in the Ornamental Garden, the various fountains in the Serpent Garden and the swings in the Cherry Orchard, in fact some families were literally camped out on the lawn area below the Grand Cascade but I didn’t see much interest in the giant-themed features such as a huge pair of boots or a giant-sized pie, perhaps because of the notices warning you not to climb on them.
It is clearly a very commercial setup: there is a large shop and cafe, all very accessible and the plant centre, in fact many of the plants around the gardens had signs saying that they were available to buy in the shop. On the other hand, they also do lots of community outreach such as activities for over 55s and for young people. They also lend out wheelchairs and mobility scooters which you should book in advance.
We arrived by car and followed signs for Accessible Parking. There are many members of staff in attendance to help and I’m pretty sure we were directed to a general parking area but as the staff were aware of our Blue Badge we had plenty of space as the next car parked leaving us ample room. Apparently there is designated Blue Badge parking but this was the summer holidays so perhaps it was full. It was up hill from there to the ticket office (we hadn’t booked in advance) then through the main gates onto the terrace with plenty of café tables and a view of the Grand Cascade. We had been given a map of the gardens with the accessible routes marked but still managed to get a bit lost as we made our way to look at the Serpent Garden and Rose Garden. I think maybe I slightly missed the point of the fountains in the Serpent Garden, they just seemed a bit dull to me! We wound our way through woodland to the top of the slope on fairly good paths: other reviewers comment on this being rather hard going for those pushing somebody in a wheelchair but at least there are benches all round the gardens for a rest.
The Ornamental Garden at the top is absolutely lovely with little streams, good paths everywhere and some beautiful flowers and shrubs.
From there along to the Cherry Orchard the path was rather rough and then the snaking path through the orchard was very rough indeed as the tarmac surface had been worn away in many places plus the bends are quite sharp so you had to concentrate on your steering. Towards the bottom, there were some beautiful wildflowers growing amongst the grass.
Once we were on the flat we then encountered the worst bit of path of the lot near the Poison Garden. This had a queue so we gave it a miss.
We had a look in the shop which was light, airy and spacious with lots of souvenirs, gardening books, some tools (very decorative and expensive!) the usual jams and chutneys and also a small exhibition by a local artist. We didn’t partake of anything in the café which was ‘food-court’ style: different outlets but with central tables which I think were wheelchair-friendly. There were also some very civilised accessible loos, accessed via a spacious lift to the basement level. There are other accessible loos around the site. Apparently the Treehouse tearooms are also accessible via a ramp.
It was a pleasant visit and I would happily visit the Ornamental Garden again but wouldn’t be inclined to pay the entrance fee just for that! It’s great that access has been built in to the place, it is far more than just a token effort but I feel less and less inclined these days to accept poor access and to me, being constantly jolted constitutes poor access. I’ll be interested to see their reply to my email about the path surfaces. I’ll keep you posted!
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