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Powis Castle & Garden 
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Powis Castle & Garden tel: 01938-551929 Area: Wales |
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| Visitor Information | www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-powiscastle_garden -- email: powiscastle {at} nationaltrust.org.uk |
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Powis Castle & Garden |
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| Opening Days and Hours | ||||||||||
1st Mar - 29th Mar; Thurs - Mon; 11am - 4:30pm |
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| Parties
/ Coaches: Yes |
Groups
/ Coaches need Appointment: Yes All groups by written appointment only and coaches limited to four per day. No group rates Sun & BH Mons. |
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House
Open for Viewing: Yes |
National
Garden Scheme days: Yes |
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| Best
Times of Year to Visit: Spring |
To
see: Rhododendrons |
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| Admission Prices | ||||||||||
| Castle & Garden: Adult £10.40, child £5.20, family £26. Garden only: Adult £7.70, child £3.85, family £19.25. |
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| Onsite Facilities | ||||||||||
| Parking:
Yes Lavatories: Yes Disabled Access: Yes |
Shop:
Yes Plants for Sale: Yes Lunches: Yes |
Teas:
Yes Light Refreshment: Yes Picnics: Yes |
Dogs
Allowed: No On Lead only: No Special Events: Yes |
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| Other
Facilities: Many events - see website. |
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| Garden Features | ||||||||||
| Medieval castle rising dramatically above the celebrated garden; Built by Welsh princes and now home to the Earls of Powis; World famous garden with Italianate terraces; One of the finest collections of paintings and furniture in Wales; Beautiful collection of treasures from India displayed in the Clive Museum. | English Heritage Garden Grade: | |||||||||
| National Collection: | ||||||||||
| Description of Garden | Designer:
William Winde |
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| This is one of the most amazing gardens owned by the National Trust and displays some of the most flamboyant and stylish herbaceous planting of any garden in the British Isles. The site is a marvellous one, high above Welshpool with the vast castle as background and views over the River Severn and the border countryside. The terraces, sheltered by high walls and with astonishing topiary, especially the 14 enormous yew 'tumps' which overflow down the walls to the terrace below, together with some very impressive heavily scented boxwood, give added protection in what is already a mild climate. The garden is famous for its tender perennials, particularly a silver artemisia named 'Powis Castle', which are brought on in the glasshouses over the winter and brought out in April. This garden has something for everybody, including an Orangery, an Aviary, some very fine lead statuary by John van Nost and superb thematic planting on the terraces which has been raised to a high order of sophistication. One terrace has plants from the Mediterranean, California and Southern Hemisphere which love the sun, another has tender scented rhododendrons and chain ferns, a third luscious herbaceous planting. In the lower formal garden, created from the former kitchen garden by the 4th Countess, old varieties of apple trees in pyramidical form stand out from the ground cover and are accompanied by roses, delphiniums, phlox, campanulas and hollyhocks. The walk winds past some lovely trees including a Paperbark maple, a Ginkgo biloba and an acer and rhododendrons. A superb garden which you will want to re-visit many times. |
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| History of Garden | ||||||||||
| The castle was built originally in about 1200 and was the mediaeval seat of the Welsh princes. It was owned by Gruffydd, who lost it to Llewellyn ap Gruffydd, a supporter of Simon de Montfort, who reportedly razed it to the ground in 1274, but he regained it by supporting Edward I and it remained in his family and then in the related Cherleton family until it came into the hands of Sir Edward Herbert in 1578. The Herberts were Royalists and after the castle was captured by Sir Thomas Myddleton in 1644, much damage was done to it, necessitating much reconstruction after the Restoration in 1660. In 1680 construction began on the terraces probably to a design of William Winde, at the request of William Herbert, the 1st Marquess of Powis who was then a leading political figure, but they were not completed until 1703, under the care of Adrian Duval, because the Marquess was forced into exile with James II after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The massive yew 'tumps' and the vast hedge at the northern end were probably planted in the 1720s. Extensive building work on the castle was undertaken from 1772 by George Herbert, who as a result of his extravagance on the castle died heavily indebted in 1810. Luckily his sister had married Robert Clive of India's son who had inherited his father's fortune and treated it to further renovation in 1815-18. Further refurbishment was undertaken in 1902 and the garden benefitted enormously from the attentions of Violet the wife of the 4th Earl of Powis who from 1911 onwards determined to transform a deteriorating garden into 'one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, in England and Wales'. Eventually the property was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1952, though it remained a private home until 1988. |
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| Nearby Wales Hotels, Facilities & Amenities | ||||||||||
| Hotels
& Accommodation: Dragon Hotel, Montgomery |
Restaurants: |
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| Inns & Pubs: Dragon Hotel, Montgomery Stumble Inn, Bwlch-y-cibau |
Villages / Towns
/ Sightseeing: |
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  - Wales |
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*Information
Updates
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0086_Powis.jpg - Powis Castle & Garden (Wales)
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