A Little Curiosity
Stonehenge has just opened a new attraction on site: a reconstructed 4,500-year-old Neolithic hall, built to show what a communal timber building from the same era as the stones would have looked like. How long did it take to build the original Stonehenge? Answer at the end.
THE ONE TO SEE
Photo: London's Luxury Secret Garden Reopening by AndyScott, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
London's Chelsea Physic Garden Reopening
Founded in 1673 by the Society of Apothecaries, Chelsea Physic Garden is the second oldest botanic garden in England, and it's been quietly doing its thing in a walled plot beside the Thames ever since.
It's not a secret exactly, but it doesn't get the footfall of Kew, which means you can actually move around it.
The garden grows over 4,500 medicinal, edible, and useful plants, and the summer opening is the best time to see the beds at full height.
Worth going on a weekday if you can.
Four worth the drive
Photo: Mottisfont by Poliphilo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Mottisfont Abbey, Hampshire
Mottisfont has recently been ranked the UK's best National Trust property by the Telegraph, which will mean queues at weekends, so plan accordingly.
The walled rose garden is the draw in June: it holds the National Collection of old-fashioned roses, and the timing right now is about as good as it gets.
The house at the centre of the estate grew out of a medieval priory and still has its remains at its core, so it's worth the extra time too.
Photo: Kingston Lacy by Elliott Brown, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Kingston Lacy, Dorset
An 18th-century ivory-inlaid Visakhapatnam cabinet that spent a year in conservation is back on display at Kingston Lacy in Dorset.
The house itself is worth the trip: it was built for the Bankes family after they lost Corfe Castle during the Civil War, and the collection inside reflects two centuries of serious collecting.
The cabinet is one of the more unusual pieces in the National Trust's care, and seeing it freshly conserved is a different experience from seeing something that's just sat on a shelf for decades.
Photo: Trengwainton Gardens by Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Trengwainton Gardens, Cornwall
Trengwainton's terrace has just reopened after being closed since Storm Goretti caused serious damage.
The garden runs along a hillside above Penzance with views out to Mount's Bay, and the restored terrace is a significant part of the circuit.
There's also a new memorial installed as part of the work.
If you're in west Cornwall this summer, this is worth adding to the itinerary.
Photo: Attingham Park by Poliphilo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Attingham Park, Shropshire
The National Trust has just launched “Attingham Unearthed | The Finds”, a new archaeological exhibition at the estate that draws on a pilot dig across the grounds.
Attingham is a late 18th-century house with a picture gallery designed by John Nash, and the archaeology is turning up evidence of occupation going back well before the current building.
The exhibition runs in the house alongside the usual rooms, so you get both in one visit.
Hidden Gem
Photo: Dunbar's Close Garden, Edinburgh by Brian McNeil, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dunbar's Close Garden, Edinburgh
The garden at Dunbar's Close on the Royal Mile is one of those Edinburgh places that most visitors walk straight past.
Tucked behind a close off the Canongate, it's laid out in the manner of a seventeenth-century town garden, with knot gardens, clipped yew, and box hedging, all planted from species you'd have found in Scottish gardens of the period.
The site has been gardens since at least the 1640s, though the present design was created by the Mushroom Trust after the old tenements here were cleared.
It's bounded by the 1691 graveyard wall of the Canongate Kirk, and next door stands Panmure House, where Adam Smith lived out his final years.
It's free, it's rarely crowded, and it takes about twenty minutes to walk round properly.
That's a good twenty minutes.
As Seen On Screen
🎞️
(Large and Small)
Photo: Snowshill Manor, Cotswolds by Celuici, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Snowshill Manor, Cotswolds
Charles Paget Wade spent much of his family inheritance filling Snowshill with objects: Samurai armour, spinning wheels, toys, clocks, bicycles, and around 22,000 other things, all arranged with obsessive precision across the rooms of a Cotswolds manor.
A TV series has now turned its cameras on the collection, which is the right call because the place is genuinely hard to describe in words.
Wade himself slept in a cottage in the garden rather than give up a room to a bed. You can visit the house and the cottage, and the garden is small but well kept.
National Trust, open through summer.
Coming Up…
The Charterhouse Open Garden Evenings · Charterhouse Square, London · EC1 · Independent
The Charterhouse started life as a 14th-century Carthusian monastery, became a Tudor mansion, and has been an almshouse since 1611. It sits behind a wall in Charterhouse Square and most people walk past without a second glance. On Thursday 18 June the gardens open for the first of this summer's evening events: live music, refreshments, and the courtyard at its best. Tickets are £15, or £35 with afternoon tea box. Not a place you'd stumble across on an ordinary day.
Plan your visit.
Jousting Tournament, Scone Palace - Scone Palace, Perth PH2 6BD · Scotland · Independent
Scone is where the kings of Scotland were crowned for centuries, the original home of the Stone of Destiny, and where James IV came to the throne in 1488 after the rebellion that killed his father. On 20 and 21 June the grounds become a tournament field: four armoured jousters, lances, thundering hooves, and the full medieval pageant. Your ticket includes the gardens, with an optional £5 upgrade to the palace on the day. It's the right setting for it.
Plan your visit.
Guided Tour of King John's Palace - Witney · OX29 · Oxfordshire · Independent
This is a former royal hunting lodge in the Cotswolds with medieval origins, first recorded in royal use in 1204 and used as a private retreat from the nearby Palace of Woodstock. Henry VII rebuilt it, Henry VIII visited, and so did Anne Boleyn, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. A fragment of the original building survives, carved with the initials of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. On 8 July you can take a guided tour, with tea and cake included. Guided access only, it is not otherwise open to the public. Book ahead.
Plan your visit.
Worth Knowing
National Trust Membership
National Trust membership is £100.80 a year for a single adult (or around £8.40 a month).
Given that a standard adult admission at many NT properties runs between £12 and £18, you break even after six to eight visits.
If you're planning a summer of gardens and houses, that adds up quickly.
The family membership at £176.40 covers two adults and their children aged 17 and under, which works out at under £15 a month for the whole household.
Learn more about National Trust Membership here.
A Little Curiosity: The Answer
Stonehenge took shape over roughly 1,500 years, from the first earthwork enclosure around 3000 BC through the raising of the great sarsen circle around 2500 BC and later alterations across the centuries that followed. The new Neolithic hall gives a sense of what was happening on that landscape long before the stones went up.
That's it for this week. If you make it to Mottisfont, go in the morning before the rose garden fills up, and give yourself time to walk down to the river. It's a different visit to the one most people have.
About Us
Rob & Ali
We're Rob and Ali, two heritage enthusiasts who got tired of spending more time researching days out than actually enjoying them. Land & Legacy is our answer: a curated guide to the heritage experiences worth your time.
We're building something bigger behind the scenes, but for now this newsletter is our way of sharing what we find.
Hit reply if you've got a place we should know about.
Until next time,
Remembering the places that matter.