Scampston is a little village outside of
Malton, North Yorkshire, on the road to Scarborough. When you get there, you
see a small green sign to the walled gardens, and you’ll have to think and
react rather quickly, as you don’t have much time before you are at the road’s
turnoff. You’re taken down a little track through the old village, and after a
few turns and bends you arrive at the gardens. Car parking is free, on a green grass
lawn just outside the entrance.
I have to admit that I did not expect the cafe and shop by the entrance to be as new and modern as it was. And very welcoming and friendly-feeling it was too. We started off with a rest in the cafe; delicious scones with clotted cream and jam, and a beautiful sparkly elderflower cordial. Very refreshing.
Feeling refreshed and energised, we wandered out into the walled garden. The ticket price was £8 per adult for entry to both the garden and the cascading circuit (a stroll past the house and through the wider gardens).
We were first greeted by a long path between
the outer wall and a thick green hedge. Along the wall were flowers of all
sorts and colours, and at once I fell into peace, it was such a calm place;
perfect as an introduction to the gardens.
As we rounded the corner, the garden opened
up in all its glory; a sea of purple and green swaying gently in the breeze. And
in the middle of the hedged-in square, four trees with individual benches in between.
Beautiful.
There were several compartments to the
garden; there were vegetables, and some trimmed hedges in fancy shapes, some
wild-flowers and cottage garden style plants. There was even a little pond in
one corner.
After spending some time in the walled
garden (the lady selling tickets had advised that we would use about 45 minutes
in there, but it was more like an hour and a quarter), we went in search of the
circuit walk. We easily found the entrance to it just where we had been told it
would be, to the left outside the main entrance.
We walked down the shadowy path between
some large trees and the garden wall, and I wasn’t so sure this would be an interesting
walk, but soon we came back into the sunshine, and I felt a lot better about
it. We approached the house, which was closed off and marked as private. It had
a bit of an eerie feel to it, as if it was all alone and abandoned, with all
the curtains closed and no movement anywhere. Luckily the lawn in front of the
house was pretty, and we came across both flower borders, and a rockery. And a
bit further along was a newer part of the house, which looked inhabited and modernised.
Soon we came to a water feature, one of those little houses with Greek columns,
which was actually a bride over some water. I wasn’t quite sure if it was a
small lake or a river, although the map had it marked as a lake. We crossed the
bridge, and meandered along the other side of the lake until it was time to cross
it again, this time on a small and narrow bridge.
The last bit of path was though an open
field with some huge trees of various descriptions, and soon we were back where
we had started, and traced out steps back to the main entrance and cafe, where
we sat down in the sunshine with a well deserved (we thought) ice cream each.
The walk within the walled garden was easy
on the legs, and would be very suitable for buggies and wheelchairs. The
cascading circuit would be a bit more tricky; the grass was a bit long in
places, and also a bit narrow. But some of it could be done, at least around
the house and on the gravelled tracks.
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