Sunday 12 September 2010

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!

25 comments:

topchelseagirl said...

Wow what a great place. It looks fun for all ages. x

Rebecca said...

wow, what a fantastic magical place.... it sounds like just my kind of place to visit! Thank you for sharing these photos and lovely descriptions! x

lazylol said...

Happy Birthday - what a delightful place!

periwinkle said...

looks like an awesome place and seems like you all had a great day ,,

Living the frugal life in France said...

What a wonderful place. Looks like you had a good day
Sue

Jacquie said...

Oooh that place looks amazing ,thanks for sharing it with us.
Happy Birthady.
Jacquie

Kathy said...

Happy Birthday to you! What a fab birthday treat - that place looks amazing!
Love Kathy xxx

Sandies' Patch said...

I think I'd like to go there!
Glad you and your friends/family had a good time!
Thanks for sharing it.

Sandie xx

Deb from WhatsInMyAttic said...

This looks like such a fun place to visit, and I can imagine they boys had a great time. Hope you had a happy birthday!

Lisa said...

You're right the children would have loved it, think we all would have done! Glad you all enjoyed it, great birthday treat.
Lisa x

VintageVicki said...

Wow that looks brilliant :)

I know what you mean about the teens reverting back to little kids too - lovely too see :)

menopausalmusing said...

Loved it!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!

BadPenny said...

looks wonderful there. I love the photo of the boys at the beginning. I like filling the car with extra kids too !

Clare Mansell said...

Just stumbled across your blog. The Forbidden Garden looks brilliant! A photographers heaven, thank for sharing!

mooncalf said...

It looks amazing! Glad you had such a good time - I think I like the frog fountain most of all :)

Scented Sweetpeas said...

Wow what a fantastic garden full of surprises! love it!

Mandy said...

I would love to go there. It looks fabulous.

Rosie said...

Looks like a wonderful place, the frogs are great! Glad you had a super birthday day out:)

A garden just outside Venice said...

I had a giggle when I saw the "tonsils"..hence the name "the forbidden corner"!LOL!
xxxx

Jackie, Erik, Jake, Drew said...

Wow, that looks like such an enchanting place and the countryside is just stunning. In a few more weeks it will be even more beautiful. I absolutely LOVE the fall colors and miss that over here terribly. Maybe one day (hopefully) I will get to fly to Boston and see the New England autumn colours. But until then I look forward to checking your blog for some lovely autumn pictures. xx

Jennyff said...

Happy birthday. What an amazing place, must be wonderful to have that kind of creative (and slightly mad) brain.

Young at Heart said...

how utterly wonderful.........I so want to go!!

harmony and rosie said...

Happy Birthday - what a fab place for it.

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday.

What a fabulous place - I'm definitely gonna take Violet here. It looks like so much fun.

Jill xx

The Girl said...

I have been DYING to go to the Forbidden Corner for so long!!! Every time I hear or read something about it I see new things as well which just goes to show how many things there are to discover there.