See, Hear, Taste, Touch & Smell at Castle Espie’s new Sensory Garden!
Castle Espie’s new sensory garden has been delighting visitors of all ages since it opened last week. The garden and courtyard has been designed to incorporate all senses, and features a herb and fruit garden, a hidden wildlife exhibit and an improved butterfly garden attracting a wider variety of insects. The herb and fruit gardens will provide delicious home grown additions to meals served in Castle Espie’s restaurant.
The Sensory Garden provides an abundance of wildlife friendly gardening and planting ideas which visitors could replicate in their own gardens. It creates a wildlife corridor for frogs, newts and toads and several microhabitats including a butterfly bank, the orchard specifically planted to support pollinating insects and a creature tower in the Fruit Garden which is a high rise home to many different species.
A comfortable new Garden Hide on the edge of the garden overlooking the main lake and Strangford Lough includes colourful interpretation of identity patterns for birds regularly spotted from the hide and on the adjacent bird feeding stations. The hide provides a quiet vantage point to view waterfowl such as Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, Coot and perhaps Kingfisher.
Sarah Clarke, Centre Manager, WWT Castle Espie Wetland Centre said:
“In creating this Sensory Garden and Courtyard it was our ambition to provide visitors to Castle Espie with a welcoming place to experience close contact with nature and wildlife in beautiful, tranquil surroundings. We see it as a special place to learn, relax, recuperate, explore and reflect.”
The sensory garden is just one of many features of the fully accessible centre, which has experiences for all ages and levels of ability and fitness. In fact all nine WWT Wetland Centres centres offer similarly sensational experiences. To fulfil Sir Peter Scott's vision of connecting people with nature, all our Wetland Centres and wildlife experiences are fully accessible and can be enjoyed by everyone.
While we can’t guarantee the weather, you’re never far from shelter at any of the purpose built WWT Wetland Centres. All nine centres have ample parking, comfortable hides, easy buggy and wheelchair friendly pathways, a range of mobility scooters and wheelchairs available to use, fully stocked cafes with moveable seating and hearing loops in reception areas. All centres have sensory or relaxation areas too, where you can sit back and listen to the birdsong, smell the plants and watch the natural world go by. Great facilities mean all your needs are catered for, so you can envelop yourself in the natural beauty of the wetland environment.
Explore Castle Espie’s sensory garden and get behind the scenes in this video chat with Simon Rose, WWT’s Centre Development Manager:
WWT Castle Espie worked with a number of volunteers in the creation of the garden and is keen to hear from anyone interested in gardening that could commit to volunteering one day per fortnight and assist with the conservation and cultivation of the Sensory Garden. This will help keep the sensory garden beautiful and sustainable, no doubt an enviable job as it is a wonderfully therapeutic and relaxing pastime. Any help would be more than welcome, so if you fancy getting your green fingers dirty, then please contact Judith Francey at Castle Espie - judith.francey@wwt.org.uk
