Last month we visited Dunsborough Park and Gardens. I had heard that the gardens are only open to the public a few weeks of the year, and of course with tulip season in full swing, I wanted to see some beautiful tulips.

Getting there

Dunsborough Park and Gardens is in Ripley Village. We followed the sat nav, but ended up, well, not very close. We walked around 10 minutes until we saw some country house-looking buildings, then walked into the courtyard and knew we were near the right place.

Once we walked along the tree-lined pathway, making sure to get out of the way of cars; again, we weren’t too sure where to go. It appeared a lot of people didn’t know either.

In fact, one family were walking up to someone’s private garden. Eventually we found a table with a lady and a clipboard – phew! We had arrived.

Gardens

The first thing we saw was a tulip meadow, which looked quite magical – I love all the bright colours.

Then we walked over a water bridge and things started to look promising. I was so happy to see some tulips in bloom – my ultimate favourite flowers! There were tulips in many different colours.

There were some tulips with no petals, presumably because the petals had bloomed earlier and therefore had all fallen off. The gardens looked lovely, though it was quite crowded.

We walked a little further out and found the other side of the water bridge we had walked over. Hearing the running stream of water was rather peaceful and tranquil here.

We continued walking around and saw some vivid lily-flowered tulips with pointed petals.

We saw fringed tulips, which I don’t see very often – these had almost frilly petals.

We spotted some delicate looking peony tulips too.

We walked around to make sure we had seen everything. There were a lot of statues dotted around the gardens.

We saw tulips of many different colours – all so cheerful and vibrant.

After we saw everything, we made our way back over the water bridge, past the tulip meadow, and had a peaceful walk back along the tree-lined pathway to the courtyard.

Tickets were about £10 per person and we spent about 35 minutes in the gardens. Though I absolutely love tulips – and there were indeed lots of tulips in these gardens – and there were lots of dogs too, I don’t think we’ll return next year.

It was quite crowded and I felt it was quite small. I’ll have to get my tulip and dog fix somewhere else!