The Forbidden Corner

My hubby asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday weekend, and I decided that I wanted to go to The Forbidden Corner near Middleham in North Yorkshire. As it says on the cup, it is the strangest place in the world. Its a place that makes a 51 year old girl feel like Alice in Wonderland.


I think that the young man is getting fed up with keeping us old fogeys company, and he asked if he could fill the spare places in the car with his mates. He has such lovely friends, so we had no objection. My only fear was they they wouldn't like the place, but they absolutely loved it. They had great fun and we really enjoyed their company.

The Forbidden Corner is basically a folly of a garden - gone mad. I think the owner was formerly the British Ambassador for Patagonia, and I bet he is as eccentric as they come. It is set in the most breathtaking place.

You have to book in advance (over the phone, the internet booking system is rubbish and always says they are full when they are not). Once through the turnstile, they give you a list of things to find in the garden (but its not a map - you have to search high and low ). When I say low, I mean low as some of the places are underground! You feel at times that you are on the set of a Harry Potter film.

The entrance is through the giants mouth....

If you bash his tonsils, he burps!

The gardens are wonderful, and have many surprises (usual squirty wet ones!)

My favourite bit was the herb garden with the stunning frog fountain. Every 15 minutes, it played a tune and the frogs danced. It also cleverly drew you in, then no matter how you tried to escape, it sprayed you with water. I could have watched this all day, it was hilarious. Once we had been sprayed, I hung around to watch others suffer the same fate!

There are temples well hidden and waiting for you to discover them. You arrive by stepping stones.

And I loved the graveyard - read all the inscriptions carefully.

There are a couple of castles to discover - both have fascinating and magical secrets within.

Old trees in the forest are turned into giants.

There is so much to discover, and its a marvellous place, whether you are six or sixty. (You have to be good on your feet though as there are lots of steps).

As you can see, the trio of 15 year olds reverted back to being 5 years old!! And they got even worse at the next place we called at!