GREAT GARDENS OF CORNWALL & DEVON MAY 31 – JUNE 9, 2021 TOUR LEADER: MICHAEL TURNER GREAT GARDENS OF Overview CORNWALL & DEVON This 10-day tour travels through some of the most beautiful countryside in England: from the dramatic coastline of Cornwall, out across the seas to Tour dates: May 31 – June 9, 2021 the distant Isles of Scilly, to the wild moors of Devon. From small private gardens to great estates, from rediscovered 18th and 19th century Tour leader: Michael Turner masterpieces to world-famous, ultra-modern concept gardens, the tour takes us back to some of the great names from the past: Gertrude Jekyll Tour Price: $7,495 per person, twin share and Sir Edwin Lutyens and introduces some of the most innovative names in modern English garden and landscape design: Sir Tim Smit, Keith Wiley Single Supplement: $1,950 for sole use of and the Bannermans, Julian and Isabel. double room June is the perfect time to see England in its early summer glory – the last Booking deposit: $1,000 per person of the trees have come into leaf; the hedgerows and fields are exploding with new life; the air is full of the scent of roses and the sound of birdsong. Recommended airlines: Qantas, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and Emirates Along the way we will be staying at three hotels carefully chosen to reflect the diverse nature of this dramatic part of England. The first three nights Maximum places: 20 will be spent in the seaside town of St Ives, enjoying sea views in a boutique hotel, steps from Porthminster beach. From the coast, we move Itinerary: Saint Ives (3 nights), St Austell (3 inland to the Cornwall Hotel and Spa on the outskirts of St Austell, a quiet nights), North Bovey (3 nights) countryside retreat. And finally, to the edge of Dartmoor and the dramatic Bovey Castle for our final three nights. Date published: May 13, 2020 The tour has all the characteristics of an Academy Travel tour – stays in carefully selected hotels, background talks before site visits and a maximum group size of just 20. Your tour leader Michael Turner is a cultural and garden historian. He has a strong personal and academic interest in the art, history, literature, and mythology of the Classical past and how these have shaped the gardens and landscapes of Britain and Italy – from the Renaissance, to the Grand Tour, to the present day. Michael holds a BA (1st class Honours with University Medal) from the University of Sydney. In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London and in 2018, a Fellow of the Linnean Society, the world’s oldest active biological society. In the early 1990s, following a high-profile career in women’s fashion in Enquiries London, Michael returned to Australia to pursue his long-held passion for and bookings all things Classical. In 2004, he was appointed Senior Curator of the Nicholson Museum, home to the largest collection of antiquities in the For further information and to Southern hemisphere. secure a place on this tour please contact Hannah Michael lives in Sussex from where he is ideally based to design and Kleboe at Academy Travel on develop new garden tours for Academy Travel. 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 (outside Sydney) or email “Michael Turner was just great, his enthusiasm about all he showed us [email protected]. was infectious, we were excited every day!” au Feedback from Academy Travel’s Gardens of Southern England, 2016. Tour Highlights STOURHEAD With hills, water and classical architecture overlaid by a collection of trees and shrubs, Stourhead was described as ‘a living work of art’ when first opened in the 1740s. Meandering paths offer vistas through trees to classical temples and surprises at every turn. The centrepiece is the lake, which dictates the path you take and the views you enjoy. THE GARDENS OF ST MICHAEL’S MOUNT A romantic castle set on a rocky island linked to the mainland by a low-tide causeway, St Michael’s Mount is one of the iconic views of Cornwall. Its gardens, begun in 1780 and warmed by both the radiated heat from the granite of the island and the prevailing Gulf Stream, are a sub-tropical paradise where all sorts of unlikely plants flourish. THE ISLES OF SCILLY Forty-five kilometres to the west of Land’s End lie the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago of some 140 low-lying islands of which just five are inhabited. The unspoilt islands are covered in heathland and fringed by sandy beaches. On Tresco, the second largest of the islands, lie the extraordinary sub-tropical Abbey Gardens begun by Augustus Smith in the 1830s. THE GENIUS OF TIM SMIT Tim Smit is responsible for two of the internationally best- known gardens in England today, the Eden Project and, less than twenty kilometres away, at The Lost Gardens of Heligan. The first, an extraordinary feat of modern engineering whereby inside two biomes, collections of plants enjoy diverse climates and environments. The second a rediscovered Victorian ‘Gardenesque’ masterpiece. PERFECTION AT RHS ROSEMOOR Rosemoor, in North Devon, is the loveliest of all the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens. The private garden of Lady Anne Palmer until 1988 when she gave it to the RHS, Rosemoor is now a riot for the senses. Of special interest are its two rose gardens: the Shrub Rose Garden with its traditional roses and the Queen Mother’s Rose Garden with its modern design. Detailed itinerary Included meals are shown with the letters B, L and D. Tour start & finish time The tour starts at 8.30am on Monday May 31, at London Heathrow Airport to meet the coach to travel as a group to Cornwall. The tour ends at 10.00am on Wednesday 9 June, with a coach transfer departing the hotel in Devon to Heathrow Airport, arriving in the mid-afternoon. Monday May 31 Arrive Cornwall Meet your tour leader Michael Turner at London Heathrow airport to commence the tour. We have an early departure by coach to Cornwall, stopping en route at Stourhead. Stourhead is probably the most famous and most beautiful 18th-century Arcadian Landscape garden in England. Between 1740 and 1780, banker Henry Hoare (1705-1785) created an idyllic mix of the Classical and the Gothic. The walk around the lake, crossed at one end by its beautiful Palladian bridge, takes in Classical temples, a Gothic cottage, and one of the most dramatic Rococo grottos in England. Following lunch of locally-sourced produce at the Spread Eagle Inn, we will continue to Cornwall arriving in the early evening. We gather together this evening for dinner in the hotel. Overnight St Ives (D) Tuesday June 1 St Michael’s Mount and St Ives Following an introductory talk this morning, we travel by coach to Marazion, where we either, depending on the tide, walk the pilgrims’ causeway or cross by boat to St Michael’s Mount. Once a sister abbey to Mont St Michel off Normandy, the island and castle have been owned since the 17th century by the St Aubyn family. After touring the castle, we explore its extraordinary gardens, parts of which date back to the 18th century. This afternoon we return by coach to St Ives to explore the idyllic harbour town with its maze of quaint cobbled streets lined with fishermen’s cottages. The town also has a rich artistic heritage which is celebrated with a plethora of galleries including Tate St Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, that you may wish to visit. The Hepworth Museum offers a remarkable insight into the work and outlook of one of Britain’s most important twentieth-century artists who came to live in Cornwall at the outbreak of war in 1939 until her death in 1975. Hepworth described her St Ives studio and garden as ‘a sort of magic’. This evening, we go to The Minack Theatre to enjoy an open-air performance. Overnight Saint Ives (B) Images left: the magnificent lake at Stourhead, reflecting classical temples, mystical grottoes, and rare and exotic trees; the hillside garden of St Michael’s Mount; and the sculpture garden at the Barbara Hepworth Museum Wednesday June 2 Tresco Abbey Gardens on the Isles of Scilly Today, we take an early morning flight from Land’s End airport across the sea to the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the Cornish coast. Following our arrival on the island of St Mary’s we take the short picturesque boat trip to Tresco, one of the five inhabited islands. Tresco Abbey Gardens are home to subtropical plants and the Valhalla Museum, displaying wooden figureheads from local shipwrecks. First laid out in the 1830s by Augustus Smith around the ruins of a Benedictine Abbey, Tresco Abbey Gardens are still owned and run by the same family. “Here off the coast of Cornwall, spring comes early, autumn stays late, and winter hardly exists at all”: truly a subtropical paradise, brimming with plants that would stand no chance at all just thirty miles away on the Cornish mainland. The garden is home to species from across the world’s Mediterranean climate zones, from Brazil to the Antipodes, from Burma to South Africa. In the late afternoon we take a flight back to the mainland. Overnight Saint Ives (B) Thursday June 3 The Lost Gardens of Heligan and Eden Project We leave Saint Ives and the beautiful Mount’s Bay heading east to our next hotel in the countryside outside St Austell. Our first Above: an aerial view over Tresco, Isles of Scilly; the ruins and lush stop on the way is at the Lost Gardens of Heligan.