The Lost Gardens of Heligan are an estate in Cornwall, near the fishing village of Mevagissey, where an entire Victorian garden was rediscovered and brought back to life after seventy years of neglect. Today it is one of the most visited gardens in the United Kingdom: a place that combines 19th-century kitchen gardens and glasshouses, a subtropical jungle with tree ferns and bamboo, enchanted woods and a moving story linked to the First World War.
History
For more than four centuries Heligan was the property of the Tremayne family. Between the 18th and 19th centuries the Tremaynes created a magnificent garden, with kitchen gardens and orchards to supply the house, heated glasshouses for growing pineapples and exotic fruit, and a valley planted with rare species brought back by plant hunters from all over the world. Dozens of gardeners worked to look after it.
With the First World War many of them left for the front, and several never came back. The garden was gradually abandoned and the vegetation swallowed it up. In 1990 the entrepreneur Tim Smit, who years later would create the Eden Project, and John Willis, a descendant of the Tremaynes, hacked their way through brambles and climbers and discovered the remains of the glasshouses, walls and paths. The restoration, one of the largest ever carried out in Europe, allowed the garden to open to the public in 1992.
One of the most moving moments of the rediscovery came in the Thunderbox Room, a small room next to the gardeners' privy, where the workers' signatures, dated August 1914, were found under the plaster, shortly before they left for the war.
- 1569The Tremayne family acquires the estate
- 18th-19th centuryThe kitchen gardens, glasshouses and jungle valley are created
- 1914The gardeners sign the wall of the Thunderbox Room before leaving for the war
- 1990Tim Smit and John Willis rediscover the abandoned garden
- 1992The gardens reopen to the public
What to see
The productive gardens
In the northern part of the estate are the Victorian kitchen gardens and orchards, now cultivated with the same techniques and old varieties as in the 19th century. In the walled garden there are glasshouses for melons, peaches, grapes and citrus fruit, and the famous pineapple pit, a glasshouse unique in Europe heated by fermenting manure, where pineapples are still grown just as the Victorian gardeners did.
The jungle
Going down the valley you enter the jungle, a subtropical world thanks to Cornwall's mild climate: New Zealand tree ferns, palms, giant bamboo, gunnera with enormous leaves and ponds linked by paths. A suspended rope bridge crosses part of the valley, to the delight of adults and children alike.
The woods and the sculptures
On the Woodland Walks you come across two sculptures that have become symbols of Heligan, made of stone, earth and plants: the Giant's Head, emerging from the ground covered in moss, and the Mud Maid, a sleeping young woman whose body is made of earth and vegetation. Further on, the walk leads to the fields and wetlands that are home to wildlife and rare-breed animals.
Practical information
The gardens are open all year, apart from a few days. There is something to see in every season: camellias and rhododendrons in spring, the kitchen gardens in summer, the colours of the woods in autumn. There is a restaurant using produce from the gardens, a café and a plant shop. Some of the jungle paths are steep. Opening times and prices are published on the official website.
Getting there
- By train: from London Paddington to St Austell in about four and a half hours, then bus or taxi (about 20 minutes).
- By car: about 10 kilometres south of St Austell; free parking.
- By air: Newquay Airport is about 40 minutes away.
Nearby
- The Eden Project, with its huge bubble-shaped biomes housing a rainforest, about 20 minutes away.
- Mevagissey, a fishing village with a picturesque harbour, a few minutes away, and Fowey, a riverside town loved by Daphne du Maurier.
- St Michael's Mount and St Ives, about an hour away.
Tips
- How long: at least half a day; a full day to see all the gardens and woods.
- When to go: spring for the blossom, but the garden is beautiful all year round.
- A tip: wear comfortable shoes and start with the kitchen gardens in the morning, then go down into the jungle when the sunlight filters through the ferns.