Christmas ice snowflakes

Wakehurst Place – Winter

I am fortunate that I have many National Trust gardens to visit that are close to me, one of which I visited recently was Wakehurst Place.

Wakehurst Glow Wild Tree
I visited the Glow Wild winter lantern festival which took place from 30 November to 17 December 2017 where I was able to take part in a magical after-dark walk through Wakehurst’s beautiful botanic gardens and majestic woodlands. All of this was brought to life with glowing, handcrafted lanterns. The walk was just under 1 mile in length and took approximately 1 hour.

 

Wakehurst Glow Wild BadgersThere were floating lanterns on the Mansion pond and stars adorning the oak trees in the Pinetum. Lanterns taking the form of fox, badgers and various other animals were also lit up and placed strategically along the trail.

The stream that led down to the Black pond was transformed into a river of fire – a continuous stream of lights cascaded downwards, filling the water with glittering light and made quite eerie by soft music being played in the background.

Wakehurst Place Mansion Lights

 

As I neared the end of the trail, shadowy silhouettes adorned the Elizabethan mansion making it look totally magical.

 

If you’d built up an appetite by the end of the walk, there were marshmallows which could be warmed by fires in the courtyard along with stalls selling items such as roasted chestnuts – yummy! All of this could be enjoyed whilst admiring the UK’s largest living Christmas tree, which was adorned with Christmas lights.

A truly magical experience – I’ll definitely be purchasing tickets for the 2018 trail.

Wakehurst Place is well worth a visit and I suggest that, if you are close by, to pop in – it won’t be a disappointment.