Wednesday, July 15 2026
Today was a nothing burger compared to the days in Edinburgh, partly because I forgot what I claimed to have learned in the previous post which is “Always book in advance in Edinburgh”. Too late last night I tried to book a table for breakfast this morning at a hotel restaurant that was a five minute walk from my AirBnB and on the bus route I needed to take to retrieve my car from the Park and Ride. The earliest available table was at 11 o’clock so I spent an hour looking for a suitable alternative on my route from Edinburgh but couldn’t find anything that worked. I took the 11 AM booking.
By the time I had finished breakfast and taken the bus to the Park and Ride it was almost 1 PM which did not leave time for me to drive the coastal route to Alnwick that I had planned. Instead I drove the very boring A1 road to my visit at The Alnwick Garden.
Unfortunately, The Alnwick Garden was almost as bland as the driving. Their centrepiece is a large water cascade and this, together with the large lawn at the bottom, takes up half of the space.
The place is very popular with families as there are many other water features, some of which the children can play in. I avoided the playing children when taking the picture below.
There were only two sections that I would regard as true gardens. The photo below is their large Ornamental Garden at the top of the cascade.
They did have several shady walkways like this one
That lead to The Poison Garden a 20 minute guided tour of which was an add-on to my ticket. As the name suggests it contains only plants that are harmful to humans. The guide told us several lurid tales of people who died in various curious ways after coming in contact with plants. The plant I found most surprising was the Laburnum tree which is common in English gardens and was common in many school playgrounds until the early 2000s. Every part of the tree is toxic to humans and thousands of school children were hospitalized after eating the seed pods which look like peas. There were also stories of criminals who poisoned with plants.
Not the most interesting day but I am now heading to dinner and then will watch to see if England can overcome Argentina to make it to the World Cup final.
We went to a poison garden in Ireland. Rhubarb leaves are poisonous which surprised me. The garden was very interesting.
Yes, rhubarb was mentioned at Alnwick as well. Strange how the leaves are poisonous but the stalk is entirely safe.
Poison gardens are amazing. There’s a cool one in the center of Phildelphia at the Mutter Museum.
The thought that mistakenly eating something that looks familiar can kill you is a good reason not to. Rita, Christian and I are planning a few days in Philly in September so I’ll bear that in mind.