Mottistone Gardens

Mottistone Gardens is a 20th-century garden created from an abandoned farmyard around an Elizabethan manor house on the Isle of Wight, on a site occupied for over a thousand years. Its sheltered, south-facing valley lets the Trust experiment with Mediterranean-style planting: exotic-leaved borders that flare red, purple and orange from late spring, a young olive grove on the high banks, an orchard and an organic kitchen garden. The Shack, a cabin where 1930s architects Seely and Paget designed projects such as Eltham Palace, is still furnished as it was in their day, and footpaths climb past Bronze Age barrows to the Neolithic Longstone. Two waymarked walks start from the car park, south to the sea at Sudmoor Point and up to Mottistone Common. Reviewers love the bluebell woodland beyond the orchard, the second-hand bookshop and the tea garden's home-made cakes, though only a room or two of the manor is open. Tips from visitors: parking is free, dogs on leads are welcome, and the main toilets are closed for upgrading with temporary facilities in use.