If you’ve ever wanted to wander through a magical landscape with your children, then Dewstow Gardens and Grottoes should be high on your to-do list! It’s a world filled with twisting, turning paths, leading you to dozens of rocky, stepping-stones crossing narrow streams and traversing small ponds, all surrounded by lush green foliage. It’s one of those places where it’s easy to believe there’s all sorts of fairytale inhabitants living there, even though there’s not a shred of suggestion or evidence!!!
A lost, historic garden, which has only been rediscovered and restored in the last 20 years (and at time of writing, is still undergoing some restoration, as far as I’m aware), Dewstow is intriguing, with both indoor and outdoor areas. The outdoor gardens are amazing, bursting with pretty flowers and some wonderful folly-type curiosities, all criss-crossed with streams and water features, and the ever-present stepping stones. Rocky archways suddenly lead you to “indoor” grottoes and gardens, where slightly more tropical plants thrive amongst waterfalls, tiny fountains, streams and even more stepping stones! And that’s before you get to the underground grottoes – a strange, subterranean world of rocky caverns and tunnels, all human-made! It’s impressive now, so must have been quite the spectacle back when it was first built!
My husband and I thought the whole site was beautiful, while the kids delighted in hopping over the stepping stones repeatedly, and exploring all the branching pathways, trying to out-do each other with their discoveries! (To be honest, I delighted in hopping over the stepping stones too – it’s not something you get to do very often!) There’s a real enchanted gardens vibe to the place – they wouldn’t look out of place in a storybook – and it really added to the kids’ feeling that there might be something magical around every turn!
The ticket office is housed in the same log cabin as a small café, and there’s plenty of seating right outside for munching on your cakes and ice creams! (There are toilets right there too.) The site is quite compact, so fab for little legs, yet there’s so many nooks and crannies and different paths, you never feel like the place is crowded! If you’ve got little ones who are splashers (or accident prone!), put them in wellies – there’s far too many opportunities for them to puddle-jump and dip their toes in the water, even on a sunny day!
We couldn’t have loved Dewstow Gardens and Grottoes more! They really are enchanting – so unusual, and so much fun too!!! They’re a fab family day out. Put them on your to-do list now!!!
The important part – how to find them:
Dewstow Gardens and Grottoes,
Dewstow House,
Caerwent,
Caldicot,
NP26 5AH.
For current entrance rates and opening times, please check their website.
A Different Way To Go 