Dartington Hall

 I had heard about Dartington Hall and was keen to visit the garden and find out what it had to offer. I was really impressed by the many fascinating aspects of the Grade II listed garden:

Seen above, the long border was a classic example of how to make a really good long border. As you can probably see there were lots of greens, yellows and blues repeating along the length of the border.

On closer inspection of the photo of a section of the border, the yellow is provided by Achillea, Phlomis and the big yellow scabious, Cephalaria gigantea. There's also a yellow leaved geranium in the picture, Fennel and possibly Echinops.

Above is the Swan Fountain a sculpture made Willi Soukop made in 1950. He also made a donkey which I didn't really like, so didn't photograph! He made the donkey and the swan sculpture while he had  residency at Dartington Hall. Soukop is famous for having taught Elisabeth Frink.

We visited on 16 June when there were masses of orchids in the rewilded areas as seen above.

This Henry Moore dates from 1946 and is called 'Memorial Figure'. It can't be seen very well, but if you look at some of the many photographs of it, you can see details.

Here's a photo of Dartington Hall from the Whispering Circle. It's a lovely building dating from 12th a 14th Centuries

Here's the information about the whispering circle above and below Lyn standing in the middle testing out the amplification of her voice as it reflects off the parabolic curved wall with a York stone paving.

It was designed in 1946 by Percy Cane. Interestingly, the steps he designed which are situate3de below the Henry Moore sculpture are mentioned rather than the whispering circle.

This sculpture below was made by Peter Randall-Page in 2005 and is called Jacob's Pillow. It was commissioned by the Dartington Hall Trust

There is a cafe on site but we were a bit late, 3.50pm and everything was closed up in the cafe, but we did manage to persuade the staff to give us a cup of tea. It seemed like an early closing in the height of summer. But food aside, Dartington Hall is a great place to visit. I've missed out lots of interesting things, so do go and have a look for yourself.