Bodnant Garden

Henry Pochin bought the estate in 1874 and planted the wooded valley of the Hiraethlyn, and his descendants, four generations of the Aberconway family, built the Italianate terraces above it between 1904 and 1914, five levels stepping down from the house with views across the Conwy valley to the Carneddau mountains. The laburnum arch, planted in 1880, is a fifty-five-metre tunnel of trained laburnum that flowers in a solid gold canopy for roughly three weeks from mid-May and draws the garden's largest crowds of the year. The Dell below holds champion conifers including some of the tallest trees in Wales, and the Pin Mill, an eighteenth-century garden building moved here from Gloucestershire in the 1930s, closes the canal terrace. The garden holds national collections of rhododendron, magnolia and eucryphia.

What you actually see

• The laburnum arch - fifty-five metres of gold canopy for about three weeks in May.
• The Italianate terraces - five stepped levels built between 1904 and 1914.
• The Dell - champion conifers among the tallest trees in Wales.
• The Pin Mill - a Georgian building moved from Gloucestershire in the 1930s.

When to go

Mid-May for the laburnum, which is the single busiest period and needs an early arrival; April and May for magnolias and rhododendrons, and autumn for colour in the Dell. The garden opens most of the year with reduced winter hours.

Honest expectations

The laburnum flowering lasts about three weeks and the exact timing shifts with the weather, so it is easy to miss. The garden is steep, with long descents into the Dell and climbs back. Peak-season parking queues along the approach road.

Nearby

Conwy and its castle lie north; Betws-y-Coed and Snowdonia are south.