KTHDSN

The Forbidden Corner

The most exciting place we visited during our crazy fortnight with my brother and sister was the Forbidden Corner in North Yorkshire. We had all been before but it hadn’t lost its charm.

The Forbidden Corner is difficult to describe. It is part garden, part fairy tale, part quest, part maze, part adventure. It is a wonderful place filled with gardens, woodland, tunnels, statues, gates, doors that only open from one side, rooms with multiple doors, some leading nowhere, and all sorts of whimsical things.

Visitors explore the garden with a checklist showing some of the main things to see. If you manage to see everything on the list, you have probably explored everywhere, including repeating some sections several times to make sure you have covered every single path.

There are signs dotted about welcoming you to your quest and pointing out that you have reached a dead end or that you have a long way to go. You meet a wide range of characters in the statues, including a bears’ poker game, the lord of the underworld and a talking horse. There are several statues that try their hardest to soak you with water as you pass them. Unless you’re very careful, they will probably succeed at least once while you’re there!

We spent about two and half hours exploring the Forbidden Corner and I’m fairly certain that we saw everything, but the girls could easily have spent more time there going round their favourite parts again. You have to book your day in advance as it’s very popular, so you have to take your chance with the weather. Rain was forecast for the day we went, but we were lucky to avoid it. It stopped just as we arrived and started up again as soon as we drove away!

If you haven’t been before, I highly recommend it. It is a really great day out for families. http://www.theforbiddencorner.co.uk/

My brother and sister visited for a fortnight and left today. I have really enjoyed having them over, and we went all sorts of places and did all sorts of things. It was a lot of fun, but exhausting, and settling back into our normal routine will take some effort. I will post about some of the places we went over the next few days as I get back to normal. In the mean time I will be catching up on housework, gardening and all the other things that took a back seat while I enjoyed having my family here.