Alnwick Gardens, Northumberland.

We visited Alnwick Garden last year as part of a combination ticket with Alnwick Castle. It really is quite breathtaking; who would have thought a garden could be such a fantastic place. I love the great outdoors but this place really is something special. You enter the garden into a Pavilion area with shops and cafes. Facing you, as you enter the gardens; is what seems like an endless waterfall and fountains.

It is called the Grand Cascade and it really is grand, it is a huge tiered water feature that has coordinated fountains going off at intervals and an overflow at the bottom, which ingeniously has small tractors where children can fill their buckets with the overflowing water and transport it around.

What a fantastic idea, Joe simply loved this and spent nearly 2 hours moving water about. We were able to watch him having a whale of a time, whilst topping up our vitamin d levels. 

To the right of this area is a child's water wonderland full of water fountains and cascading water features which you can jump in and run through, we were so lucky it was a hot day. The boys were able to get soaking wet and cool off, without the fear of freezing. 

They loved it and spent ages splashing and running about through the water. Fortunately we had taken towels and a change of clothes with us so they were able to dry off.

If you walk up the steps to the top of the Grand Cascade there is the most beautiful and peaceful rose garden, it is set in the style of a formal garden and is so tranquil. It is a place you can sit in the sun listening to the birds singing and breathing in the scented air of all the beautiful flowers. To be honest it was a bit too peaceful for the boys’ dulcet tones, so we didn't stay up there to long. They only have one sound level; gramophone, it felt a bit unfair on all the people enjoying the peace so we took them back down to the main garden where the sound of the water drowned out their voices a bit.

Another great area is the poison garden this is a really interesting guided tour which tells you about dangerous and poison our plants, as you can imagine a subject which the boys were enthralled in. It was a touch alarming to realise just how poisonous some of these beautiful plants are, and the affect they cash have on a person.

I would definitely recommend Alnwick Garden there is lots to do yet is an extremely relaxing environment. We loved the day we spent here and would not hesitate to revisit the Gardens or Castle. We also Visited the Tree House in the Gardens but that deserves a post of its own it was amazing, it was like no tree house I have ever seen.