THERE IS A BRAND NEW VISITOR ATTRACTION IN COOL CARMARTHENSHIRE
In a dreamy, wooded valley with water all around,
there's a very special experience waiting to be discovered.
Paid for with the fruits of a remarkable fundraising effort, the Regency Restoration project is the largest piece of work undertaken by the National Botanic Garden of Wales since it opened in May 2000.
More than 200 years ago, it was one of the UK’s finest waterparks. It has taken five years and more than £7 million. It’s seen the restoration of a 1.5km lake, a waterfall and a cascade; a new 350-metre-long dam built, six new bridges. . . but now it’s restored and ready for all to see.
This is just part of what’s on offer at the national garden, of course.
The Botanic Garden is also now home the British Bird of Prey Centre – a unique collection of raptors and the only place in the UK you can see a golden eagle and a European sea eagle fly, with stunning flying displays every day. It provides awesome encounters with remarkable creatures and a guaranteed, never-to-be-forgotten, up-close-and-personal experiences with owls, hawks, falcons, eagles, kestrels and red kites.
The Botanic Garden’s centrepiece is the awesome glass dome that is Lord Foster’s Great Glasshouse, home to one of the finest collections of Mediterranean climate-zone plants in the world.
Cardiff-based writer and broadcaster Charles Williams said of this amazing building: “The world’s biggest single-span glasshouse looks like an alien mothership has crash-landed into the middle of some rural idyll (but in a good way).”
All around the Great Glasshouse you will find plenty of paths to take and around every corner is something to savour, enjoy and marvel at.
Why not take a tranquil lakeside walk?
A little further and you will find the ambitious Arboretum, where we are growing trees and shrubs from around the world with wild collected seed – planted for the future and growing fast.
Further still and you are on the wider estate where specially planned out and clearly-marked routes will transport you to new and amazing revelations – wild waxcap meadows where brightly coloured red, green and yellow fungi nestle like improbable gems in the tufty grass of the sheep-chewed pasture; and where the trees and hedgerows throng with whitethroats and flycatchers.
Not far from here, our carefully managed hay meadows reveal a treasury of orchids and other almost forgotten, stunning countryside wildflowers like ragged robin, yellow rattle, knapweed, greater burnet, eyebright and an abundance of orchids.
Make sure you include in your itinerary the unique and historic Double-Walled Garden, a steamy Tropical House, the busy Bee Garden, our Welsh heritage orchard and a newly-planted grove of more than 100 cherry trees.
For more information about the Botanic Garden, please visit our website (button below)
If you want admission or booking info, contact our Admissions team on 01558 667149 or via gatehouse@gardenofwales.org.uk
For more details about the British Bird of Prey Centre, please take a look at their website (button below)