A visit to a country park and an impressive hillside garden in the South Wales Valleys.

The event starts at the Parc Cwm Darren Country Park, Deri, in the upper Rhymney Valley near Bargoed, and continues with a visit to the Hillcrest Garden at Blackwood, a national garden scheme site, which is opening for a GOC visit.

Cwm Darren is a beautiful area containing a lake, nature reserve and woodland.  We will walk about two miles to see the park highlights and admire how land around a noisy and polluted former coal mine has been transformed to an area of solitude with abundant wildlife. The walk is on level paths, most of which have hard surfaces. We will meet at the park’s visitor centre at 1 pm where refreshments are available before setting off on our stroll around the park at 1.30pm.  The walk will last about 1 hour.

We will then drive five miles to Hillcrest where owner Michael will be waiting to greet us at 3 pm. The National Garden Scheme describes this site as a cascade of secluded gardens of character over 1½ acres with a naturalistic approach in some areas. Magnificent, unusual trees, interesting shrubs, perennials and annuals. After time to explore the various parts of this extensive garden, Michael will provide light refreshments and answer questions on how he has created such a distinctive space. Further details of Hillcrest can be read on the NGS website https://ngs.org.uk/gardens/hillcrest-np12/  There will be a £5 charge for the garden visit and refreshments - please pay at the time with cash.  The garden postcode is NP12 3LB (grid ref ST 161 976).

Please book your attendance on this webpage, to enable Michael to be aware of the catering required, and indicate if you only wish to visit Hillcrest, so we are not waiting for you at Parc Cwm Darren.