I doubt that you have ever heard of Dunge Valley Gardens. They sit on a wild, remote hillside at close to 1000 feet, looking westwards. It is an acid soil created by the underlying gritstone and heavy rainfall, not far from Windgather Rocks. Although the gardens are a little paradise, the real joy is the incredible contrast with the surrounding countryside. It is sheep farming country, often bleak and cold and wet. A gardeners joy seems misplaced, unreal, out of context, yet here it is. It is also a seasonal garden, a mass of rhododendrons and azaleas sitting in the shade of huge trees. This vegetive mass is seemingly impossible when related to the surrounding bleakness. The word valley is also misleading because this is really Dunge Clough, using the local vernacular. It is also only open in Spring each year.

Springtime

The acid soil is ideal for rhododendrons and azaleas and they only flower in spring. Arriving early, after a satnav meltdown, the approach is a long, narrow lane. Parked by the house, the multiple flowering bushes are awe-inspiring. The garden is then a hard walk on steep paths where you are literally forcing your way through the plants. Basically, you climb the clough, following white arrows, up the right side and down the left. Then, the middle can be done following the stream and waterfalls. You miss many of the trees, often magnolias, because you fail to look upwards. The garden is a labour of love by a couple now elderly.

Dunge Valley Gardens

The garden is not highlighted as a environmental site, yet it is. Nature cannot help itself. If you create acres of light and shade, dry and wet, then it moves in unheralded. Golden saxafrage, bluebells, herb Paris, all are there plus many others, lichens too. Birds kept crossing our path, all this diversity entirely missing in the surrounding fields. Ultimately, you become shocked that so much life can arise in what is typically a flowerless landscape. As a gardener myself, I understood the sheer labour and passion put into this creation. It is, though, too much for me as I approach 80 years of age. Thank heavens this couple can do it and allow me and Ann to visit.