Our day at Trevarno..

Before the riots, before the worry, before working 23 hours a day and before sleeping every hour to get over it, we were a little family of four, and yesterday we were that again and a walk in a garden made it totally perfect.

We are on our holidays in Cornwall at the moment, and you know what the great British weather is like, one minute your heading to the beach and the next your grabbing your raincoats, but we wouldn’t have it any other way would we! So after much deliberation we decided to head out to Trevarno gardens and estate near Helston, I had heard some good things about it, so thought I’d put it to the test!

And what a great decision it was!

They say you can explore and lose yourself in 70 acres of gardens and grounds of the estate, we didn’t get around to see anywhere near 70 but you can most certainly lose yourself in the beautiful surroundings and the fantastic woodland walks which kept the children entertained for hours!
We got there mid-morning and found it quite quiet for a summer day in the school holidays, which was perfect for us, but that did mean that we had picked a day when the children’s entertainment wasn’t on. Not that you would need it, the place was amazing!

With an adventure playground, woodland walks, reindeer, wild birds and beautiful flowers there really is a huge amount to see and do on your day here. The fact that peacocks stroll throughout the estate just adds that extra magical feel!

Within two minutes of arriving the kids had run off to find the peacocks that you could hear from the car park, and they weren’t disappointed! They are beautiful and spend most of their time on the lawn by the conservatory tea room.

After a short stop and run around, they disappeared through the wonderful hidden tunnels and tracks to find the woodland adventure play area which is ideal for all ages, mine are one and seven and they both spent an hour here very happily!

After a play in there we went back to the tea room for some lunch, and although a little expensive, it certainly got our vote! Using only seasonal food, it’s all homemade and it really is delicious! (the deserts are to die for!). The kids had a lunch box each which cost £4.75. It was a tad more than we are used to paying for lunch boxes, but you do get value for money as it included a huge cheese roll, fresh fruit drink, dried fruit bar, crisps, sesame seed bar and a chocolate bar! I’m pretty sure we could have shared it with them!

So after re-fuelling and a quick use of the on-site toilets and baby changing room (which are both excellent and very clean) we walked back in to the gardens. Mr N wanted to check out the branch line station at the
very top of the gardens. They have recently opened a platform at Trevarno which is currently being restored by the Helston Railway Preservation Company, an entirely voluntary group, working to re-open the most southerly branch line in the UK. There is a working diesel shunter, which offers rides on certain days, and carriage train which is currently under restoration. It is open though for you to pop your head in and look around, including the drivers carriage. The boys loved this!

We finished the day with a stroll around the lake with its Victorian boathouse, which looks like something out of a film. In fact if you Google Trevarno gardens it is more than likely that you will find a picture of this lake, and I can assure you that it looks just like these photos, quiet, tranquil and totally magical.

A quick stop to say bye to the peacocks on the way out and our day at Trevarno was complete. The kids had a great time, and we thoroughly enjoyed the walk together, all in all it was perfect and we can’t wait to go again!

Trevarno Gardens is near Helston, and is easily accessible from St.Ives, Helston and the A30. Sat Nav users use TR13 0RU. It’s open every day 10.30 – 5pm (except Christmas and Boxing Day)

www.trevarno.co.uk