Tresco Abbey Gardens

Old Grimsby

On the morning of Friday 29 July we rode the dinghy ashore to the beach at Old Grimsby.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather; clear blue skies and almost no wind.

New Grimsby Quay

Looking across New Grimsby Sound towards the islands of Bryher (R) and Sampson (L)

We had a lovely walk across the centre of the island from Old Grimsby to New Grimsby.  Both villages seemed to be primarily composed of holiday cottages and the centre of New Grimsby also appears to have been redeveloped with tourism in mind.  We saw very few motorised vehicles and noted that the communal recycling and rubbish bins which serve all the homes and other properties on the island are all enclosed in wooden enclosures so that the brightly coloured bins won’t detract from the beautiful rural surroundings.

Tresco Abbey

Tresco Abbey was built on the site of the old ruined Tresco Abbey by Augustus Smith a Herefordshire landowner who took over the administration of the islands in 1834.  He took the title of Lord Proprietor of all Scilly and remain in that position for 38 years until his death in 1872.  Not only did he transform the prosperity of the islands, but he also established the internationally renowned Tresco Abbey Gardens in the 17 acres that surrounded his new house.

Abbey Pool

Tresco Abbey remains a private building though the gardens are open to the public.  The entrance to the gardens was on the other side of Tresco Abbey so we followed the road, past the Abbey Pool (and the island’s helipad!) and into the visitors’ centre.

Red squirrels leaping across from the tree to get to the nuts at the feeding station

Tickets purchased, we started to cross an ornate bridge into the gardens but stopped to watch a red squirrel trying to reach a feeding station, already occupied by another squirrel.  The metal bin lid stops the squirrels from getting onto the feeding station from below, so they have to take a flying leap from the nearby tree and then try not to skid past the food box on the slippery top of the bin lid.  It took the squirrel we watched a great many attempts and kept us entertained for several minutes.

Inside, the gardens were quite charming.  Terraces stepped up the south-facing slope and were divided up into separate areas.

The Gulf Stream helps to keep the air temperature higher in the Isles of Scilly than in the rest of Britain and Augustus Smith began the development of the gardens by planting conifers around it to act as a windbreak when they were fully grown.  This windbreak planting was continued by his descendants as was the development of the gardens.  As a result of the Gulf Stream and the windbreak plantation, the gardens are both sheltered and warm and there are a wide variety of plants growing in abundance that would not survive anywhere else in the British Isles.

Looking out across St Mary’s Road at the island of St Mary’s (L) and St Agnes (R) 

The disadvantage of the conifer screen is that there are relatively few views out across the islands from the gardens…….

…..but the views inside the gardens more than make up for that!

The ruins of the original Tresco Abbey

Plumb Island, Great Crabs Ledge, Lubbers Rock and Tresco Flats beyond.  Sampson Hill on Bryher to the right

On our route back to Old Grimsby we walked up the western side of Tresco which gave us spectacular views of New Grimsby Sound and Tresco Flats at low water.

Looking NW up New Grimsby Sound

New Grimsby to the right.  Cromwell’s Castle right side of the Sound, Hangman Island to the left

Once at New Grimsby we cut across the middle of the island to get to the eastern side and back to Old Grimsby.

View from BV north towards the passage out between St Helen’s Island (left) and Team Island (right)

On our way back to BV we took the dinghy out through the passage between St Helen’s and Tean Islands.  The pilot book is full of warnings about this passage but leaving via that route would save us a lot of time, so we decided to recce it.  We found that it is rocky on either side and that close to St Helen’s Pool we would need to make a couple of turns to keep BV in the deepest water.  But the water was so clear that we were able to spot the deepest areas from the dinghy and picked out some transits to help us get BV out safely after we had had some lunch.

Tresco Abbey Garden, Tresco, Isles of Scilly