We stayed for 3 nights at the Mount Ephraim B&B. It was a wonderful experience. Beautifully... read more
We stayed for 3 nights at the Mount Ephraim B&B. It was a wonderful experience. Beautifully... read more
One of my favourite local places to visit. Indeed I have a season ticket. I visited with... read more
Having recently moved to the area this is now a favourite place to go. Lovely setting with some formal gardens, a beautiful rockery, lake and wooded area. Maze and small play area for children. Excellent cafe with great views, not too pricey. Also good craft centre, but not always open. We went in the week and very few other people there. Only slight disadvantage is that access is down narrow country lanes.
We were looking for places to go with dogs in Kent and this was one of the only gardens which allowed them. The beautiful gardens took us around 1.5 hours to 2 hours to walk around before going to their coffee shop which had some very delicious cakes! When you start your walk around the gardens you are given a map and route which shows you the best way around to make sure you get to see everything such as the japanese area, the aboretum and the very colourful maze!
I hadnt ventured herw before, been to most other garens in the area. Not sure how this one slipped me by. There werent many people there, so maybe its not well known? The japanese garden is one of the best Ive seen outside japan, and ive been to kyoto.
Its easy to miss, as you pass through its top end on the way to the main garden. But the lake and japanese garden are the best parts of ephraim. The japanese garden is long and thin, in an arc at the edge of the main garden. So you at first think its just a border. But when you walk down to the lake end, by the bridge and look back, the terraced steps of pools and mini waterfalls are stunning. The planting is breathtaking, the design and rock work is on par with what i saw in kyoto.
Our pleasure here was enhanced by it being a lovely sunny day and the gardens being nearly deserted. We had packed a small picnic which we ate whilst overlooking the tennis courts. The views around are spectacular and breathe taking. Next time we will eat on the bench alongside the lake. Due to the remoteness of the gardens the area is timeless and to quote a previous reviewer totally tranquil. It is easy to imagine being there in its heyday. Would also recommend a visit to the nearby Red Lion pub
We visited here on a beautifully hot sunny day (for a change in the UK). The gardens were fabulous with lots of information scattered about plus a basic map (which is all we needed). Our first stop was the tearoom in which we both had Victoria sponge, which was delicious (although a tiny bit dry but we were there quite late in the day). It's only £6 to get in which makes it very reasonable compared to other nearby places and I noticed it was £6 for a cream tea also-which I intend to have on our next visit.
We were there for the New Day festival and found the surroundings stunning, as was mentioned by many of the artist that were there as well. we intend to go back and visit the gardens as the lake was off limit because it was behind the stages and the ponds/water feature were cordoned off and not working. Yes in parts it looked tired, but they were expecting a couple of thousand of people to trample over everywhere so no doubt they have been busy beforehand and this week tidying up and clearing up and turning the fabulous water features back on again. No doubt there is fish in the lake to see on another visit. And there is a craft centre, tea shop and garden centre that we did not manage to visit.