I’ve found Cornwall’s most beautiful place to stay

To Let: Trebah Lodge. A newly refurbished, two-bedroom gatehouse in south Cornwall. Comes with 26 acres of private garden, a private beach … and embarkation facilities for 7,500 soldiers plus artillery and tanks. Sleeps four, from £815 a week.
We’ll get to the tanks later. Right now, the most important thing to know is that the garden in question is lush, deep, subtropical Trebah. It inhabits the same kind of benign, seaside combe that nurtures the Lost Gardens of Heligan — and between the hours of 9.30am and 5pm it’s open to the public. Once they’ve gone, however, the guests at this new holiday rental have the run of the place, right up until the gardeners start work at 7.30 the following morning. Sound like privacy? I certainly thought so. As soon as I caught wind of it, I ditched my watering cans in arid northeast London and elbowed my way to the front of the queue.
Now I am here with Jon Cummins, CEO of the Trebah Garden Trust, being shown around the lodge in bright, mid-August sunshine. He admits the paint has only just dried. “It’s always the way with old buildings like this,” Cummins explains. “As soon as you scratch the surface the jobs start multiplying. But we got there in the end. I hope you like it.”
I do, Jon, I do. All the way from the induction hobs in the brand-new kitchen to the Edwardian-flavoured interior design everywhere else. But even so, nothing it offers — not even the charcoal and cedarwood soap in the two en suite bathrooms — is as lovely as the thought of what’s coming next. As soon as the garden’s last paying visitors have driven out of the car park, I am down at the unobtrusive side entrance, pushing through the gate.
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Holy mother of all things verdant. Ever since I first walked barefoot onto a freshly mown lawn, English gardens have been my balm; and this is surely one of the most soothing. It begins, conventionally enough, with a broad strip of grass, blazing in the golden, late-afternoon sunshine. But it’s what lies beyond that’s most seductive. Great billowing clouds of ferns and leaves ripple and rustle their way down the valley, all the way to a glittering strip of estuary: and here I am, a scruffy London interloper, about to lower myself into their voluptuous embrace. Alone. I feel so privileged, my hair is going to twist into Little Lord Fauntleroy curls.
In part, I can thank Trebah’s warm and moist microclimate for what follows. But just as important are the generations of gardeners, plantsmen and labourers who realised its potential. The shipping agent and industrialist Charles Fox got the ball rolling in the 1830s, when he planted the all-important shelter belts of trees along both edges of the combe. He also began importing Trebah’s defining subtropical plants, work that was continued by his daughter Juliet. Special mention should also be made of the indefatigable Anthony Hibbert, who fought at Arnhem and later, with his wife, Eira, rescued the garden from postwar decrepitude.
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Now the Trebah Garden Trust is in charge. A team of four full-time gardeners, led by Darren Dickey, is supported by a garden committee, 5,000 Garden Trust members and (in 2023) 110,000 paying visitors. Nourished by all that care and income, it has surely reached some kind of apogee — flowing down its valley in a carnival of exotic and well-planned plantings. First comes a rich and varied water garden, which blends almost imperceptibly into prehistoric tree ferns, followed by rustling stands of bamboo as tall as a house and 10ft “giant rhubarb” gunnera. Finally, around a sizeable pond, the valley bursts into a symphony of blue, purple and white hydrangea. I used to scoff at hydrangea. Not any more. Here it’s so emphatic, extensive and overwhelming — and set against such a magnificent mix of deciduous trees and palms — that you can’t help but love it. It gives colour to the garden right through the second half of the summer.
It is, in other words, a triumph 190 years in the making: the product of generations of busy hands and clever gardening minds. And now it’s just me, on this perfect August evening, getting the benefit. Just because I booked a couple of nights in an elegant self-catering cottage.
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Needless to say, I make full use of the access. Dusk’s deepening bed of green is especially serene. But at dawn you get more birdsong — as well as sunrise over the mouth of the Helford River. It’s here, down by the beach, that information boards tell you more about those tanks and troops, which belonged to America’s 175th Infantry Regiment. Stationed locally they embarked from Trebah’s sheltered beach on June 4, 1944, before a rendezvous with the D-Day invasion armada. If ever there was a moment to remember their sacrifice, it’s in those first rays of rose-tinted light.
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The one thing I don’t do much of is visiting the garden when everybody else is there. My out-of-hours access is like a lover’s secret, the kind you only ever want to share with that one person. I guard it jealously for the entire trip — and make exceptions only for the walled Court Garden and Trebah’s restaurant, which serves immaculate lattes and bright, salady lunches. The rest of the time I’m either brewing cups of tea with the smart Dualit kettle back at the Lodge. Or I’m out exploring the Helford River.
Technically, this deep, leafy waterway is a ria, a river valley drowned by the rising sea. And it’s bafflingly undervisited. That’s probably because most people come to Cornwall for its wide Atlantic beaches, not snug little anchorages. As a result the boaties have it almost to themselves. Each evening, as they congregate around the Ferry Boat Inn, the riverside lanes and lawns echo to the sound of their cut-glass accents. They seem untroubled, uninhibited and carefree; as if they too had found a secret garden in which to luxuriate.
Meanwhile, I take a seat among them and quietly scoff. Sorry folks. My secret garden is lovelier than yours.Sean Newsom was a guest of Trebah Lodge and the Trebah Garden Trust (trebahgarden.co.uk). Seven nights’ self-catering for four is from £815 (cornishholidaycottages.com)
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Squirrelled away in deepest mid-Devon, Rosemoor is a place of extraordinary diversity, mixing extensive areas of woodland with exquisite garden “rooms” — each exploring different habitats and/or planting schemes. Roses, bogs, cool colours, foliage, exotics, fruit and veg: there’s far too much to see across the 65-acre site on a normal visit. So it’s good to know that when you check into one of Rosemoor House’s three self-catering apartments that you have free access to all this beauty from sunrise to sunset. All are decked out in fresh, country-house style, and Magnolia (the one-bedroom flat), has a sunny veranda set beside a lemon tree, whenever you need a breather. Details Three nights’ self-catering for two from £480 (rhs.org.uk)
Head gardener was a senior post on the Audley End estate. It’s a fact reflected in the generous proportions of the Head Gardener’s House, which overlooks the walled garden not far from the main Jacobean mansion. English Heritage has done it proud too. Its recent refurbishment project has given it a new kitchen and bathrooms, and a confident colour scheme that balances areas of deep colour and statement wallpaper with quieter, soothing walls. Guests have free access to the mansion and the formal parterres during regular opening hours — and can wander the sweeping hillside park at any time, day and night.Details Three nights’ self-catering for six from £670 (english-heritage.org.uk)
Cragside is justly famous for its pinetum — the deep gorge beneath William Armstrong’s mansion that shelters one of Britain’s finest stands of pine trees. But lately its formal gardens have been revived too — as you’ll discover when you check into Cragside Garden Cottage, which sits in their midst. The interiors are bright, antiquey and unfussy. Outside, the colourful beds of the Italian garden combine with sweeping views of weather-beaten moorland to memorable effect — and you can enjoy both long after the garden’s gates have shut.Details Two nights’ self-catering for six from £450 (nationaltrust.org.uk)
After more than 340 years of gardening, Powis Castle is a place of towering topiary, deep herbaceous borders and wide terrace views — and its half-timbered garden cottage takes plum spot, right in the middle. It’s called, rather misleadingly, the Bothy. Expect three bedrooms, a generous kitchen, a comfy, creaky lounge and, during the garden’s opening hours, a certain lack of privacy (the Bothy doesn’t have its own garden). That all changes, however, when the visiting public leaves.Details Two nights’ self-catering for six from £549 (nationaltrust.org.uk)
Is Trebah Lodge fully booked? No worries: posh, foliage-flavoured accommodation is on hand two miles eastwards at Hotel Meudon. Set at the top of its own nine-acre subtropical garden, the soft greens, browns and russets of the bedrooms reflect the flourishing plant life outside, while the restaurant is strong on local produce. A pre-breakfast walk to the hotel’s secluded beach is a must. It looks straight towards the rising sun.Details B&B doubles from £114 a night (meudon.co.uk)
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