Local, Town and Village Public Transportation Resources

https://www.gardenvisit.com/garden_landscape_finder/garden_visiting_advice/gardens_around_london

Might be helpful

www.traveline.info or in wales >https://www.traveline.cymru are good sites for finding bus routes / getting from a to b. www.nationalrail.co.uk is good for the entire rail network. See map > http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/images/structure/css/nationalrailnetworkmap.pdf

The rail fares system is going to be simplified - and about time!

Consider carefully when you travel. Towards the end of May is the peak time for azaleas & rhododendrons - which may continue into early June. June is good for roses as is a second flush in September - but not as good as the June flowering. However, the best time for most gardens is July for that is when the herbaceous borders are in flower. These continue into August with early August being better than late August. Flowering times vary a bit with the south obviously being earlier than the north by about 11 days.

"The rail fares system is going to be simplified - and about time! "

I seem to remember that this statement comes out every few years and nothing changes, in fact it probably gets more complex, it's in the interest of the rail companies to keep it that way so they can squeeze more money out of tourists and people who don't understand the nuances of the ticketing system.

Do you already know which gardens you want to visit, or are you looking for suggestions of which ones are easier to reach by public transport?

Yes, it would be helpful to know if you've got some gardens targeted.

I'm not a gardener but enjoy other people's work. I particularly arranged one trip to Bath to visit Prior Park Landscape Garden mostly to see the Palladian Bridge feature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_Park_Landscape_Garden

The American Museum just outside Bath also has extensive gardens. I did not allow enough time to visit both the house and gardens so missed the outdoors part. They provide a shuttle several times a day from Bath City Centre out to the Museum.

I suspect this is the wrong direction for your trip since you are ultimately headed for Edinburgh.

Do put Kew Gardens on your list for London.

For all transporation options I use rome2rio.com
It will show you how to get from anywhere, to anywhere, anywhere in the world, by ALL possible means of transportation.
Hope this helps!
Sounds like a really fun trip!

Having read your profile - I recommend that to all the responders here - I'd suggest that you try to narrow down your choices by having a read of the National Trust website and drill down to the how to get here and what the gardens appeals to you. National Trust has many special gardens throughout the country, and several Arts and Crafts ones.

I admire your decision to leave the car behind on a trip that would be much easier with a car - do read carefully how you will get to each place.

There has been quite a cut-back in bus services during austerity - check carefully.

I must caution you about depending very much on Rome2Rio.com. It's generally accurate when it says that rail service is available or that bus service is available. The indicated transfer points seem pretty solid. But I have no idea where it gets the travel times, frequencies and fares it quotes. I just ignore them. If you keep drilling down on the website you should eventually find the name of the company operating the trains/buses. There's nearly always a link the company's website as well. Use that to find the real schedule.

When depending on public transportation, day of the week is key. You must also pay attention to holidays.

I use public transportation myself, and I have had to accept that some gardens just are not accessible for me.

Train fares on some routes in the UK can be shockingly high per mile if you buy the ticket on or near the date of travel. You've got lots of time, so there's no rush, but as you begin to nail down travel segments that might involve trains, you should take a look at the current cost of the trip if made on the day you're researching and the cost for an Advance ticket 10 or 11 weeks in the future. Those Advance tickets are non-refundable/non-changeable [see ramblin' on's correction in the post immediately below mine], but you may have some travel legs where they save enough money that you'll want to take advantage of them. Your research will allow you to figure out which legs fall in the try-to-buy-ahead category and which can be bought at the last minute because the fare doesn't change.

Those Advance tickets are non-refundable/non-changeable

"Whilst there are no refunds on Advance tickets in most cases you can change your journey prior to travel (up to departure) for a £10 fee plus any difference in the fare payable."

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46546.aspx

Check out these gardens:> Hidcote/Kiftsgate (Cotswolds); Dyffryn - which could be combined with the gardens at St.Fagans Castle - (near Cardiff); Bodnant (North Wales); Ness (NW of Chester); Powis Castle (Welshpool); Stourhead (Wiltshire); Compton Acres (Poole/Bournemoth); Mottisfont (Very good for roses) ; Wisley; Exbury (mainly azaleas/rhododendrons); Lost Gardens of Heligan / Glendurgan/ Trebah/ Eden Project (Cornwall).

I recommend a Britrail pass. It is simple and erases the hassle of fighting to be someplace at a particular time. Allows you the freedom to "smell the roses" as it were. Also, with as much time as you will be there, I'm sure you will find it less expensive than point to point tickets.

I have found myself taking a lot of buses in the UK because they went where I wanted to go and trains did not, so I don't think it's a given that a BritRail pass will save money--all the more since Chauncey is working on this trip a year in advance, indicating that committing to specific travel dates and times in order to buy low-cost Advance tickets well ahead of time may not be terribly burdensome.

Of the gardens suggested my James I can confirm that these three are accessible by public transportation: Bodnant in Wales, the Eden Project in Cornwall and the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall. I traveled to Bodnant from my base in Chester by a combination of train and bus. I traveled to the two Cornwall gardens from my base in Mevagissey by bus. Mevagissey itself has no train service.

Chauncey, what do you think of these responses so far?

Nigel: Hi, and thank you for your message! I have received a good number of replies to my post and I am getting some good information. So far, however; I haven't been able to zero in on a plan to investigate transportation options available in the UK. This may be that the UK is like the USA, rural point-to-point or non-urban travel is mostly done by private passenger vehicle and not by public transport such as a bus line. Travel between most cities of any size can be accomplished easily by train, but there seems to be little information in the way of what the web of travel is beyond the train station other than commercial taxi services, which I don't think I could manage at every stop.

So, I am still looking for some references to how to locate, for the entire UK (big request I know), what bus services may be available from smaller towns and villages to other smaller towns and villages. This, admittedly may be the opposite approach that may be needed - for instance, perhaps I should pick the garden first and then try to find transportation to and from an area served by a train station? I selected the "web of transportation" option to explore first in hope of avoiding doing lots of research on (and getting excited about) a specific garden and then finding I had to rent an automobile to get there.

I am new at this, so I am still trying to see patterns and groupings of information that may provide a clue as to how to go about it. This is one reason I started planning now for 2020, as I expected some difficulty finding transport in less populated areas. If I were 50-years younger (and still had my tie-dyes) I could just stick out my thumb (man)! But, regrettably, those days are long gone.

Still working on this, have the time and have had really nice people try to help. I appreciate every post and every idea. Can't wait to get there and be in that wonderfully helpful UK environment again. Thank you, all.

Chauncey

As I said earlier, use www.traveline.info - put in where you want to start and then the name of the garden and it should tell you how to do it.

James: Thanks for the reinforcement. I have visited this site and it is a good resource, but you have to plug in every garden in the UK to see if there is local transportation from the nearest rail station to the location of the garden. Maybe, if I were tech savvy, I could write an algorithm that could do this for me, but, alas, I am not so smart. If it comes to this, of course I will sit down and go through the list of open gardens found on the National Trust website one by one, add other gardens not NT owned or managed and see what can be accessed by local transport from the nearest rail station. I will get this done one way or the other. Best regards. Chauncey

I would agree with Nigel's suggestion, to peruse the National Trust website. The NT looks after many stately homes most of which contain fantastic gardens. On each National Trust property webpage there is guidance on how to get there including public transport options. However, due to the very nature of such properties they're often not best served by public transport and most often tend to be located on large estates in the middle of the country which means that having a car is the easiest option although public transport is rarely ruled out it does mean a bit of extra effort is involved.

As far as walking along country lanes is concerned you'll find that in some cases it'll be fine, in other cases you'll feel that you'll be putting your life at risk. Most country lanes are bordered by either large hedgerow or trees and blind corners are aplenty. Most drivers will drive cautiously along them but others, predominantly locals who know the route, will drive less cautiously. Public access on land is very good in the UK with the Right To Roam laws www.gov.uk/right-of-way-open-access-land/use-your-right-to-roam, however be aware that this is likely to be a muddy affair during spring. There are public access paths all across the UK, many bordering crop fields so you don't have to cross the fields but can safely follow footpaths that criss cross in all directions for many miles.

The problem with countryside buses is that we are still in an austerity period - despite government proclaiming the end of austerity the cuts are still deep and continuous - and buses are often the loser, especially subsidised rural ones.

Some villages will have daily or more frequent buses on some routes, but that is usually town to town and maybe stopping at the village you want or maybe not. Some rural areas, such as in the Cotswolds, have some villages with one bus a week, some or many none, sometimes one bus in the morning and one in the afternoon.

There is no specific pattern. Buses are privately run, and sometimes - like in Oxford - compete with each other, but more commonly different companies run different runs, or have the whole franchise in an area. Every

You will also want to know that every county or administrative division awards franchises and supervises (or not) differently.

Trying to see the bus situation for the whole country will have your head swimming. You are strongly advised to decide which gardens you want to visit and from where, and then use the above website and work out the details for that one. Then do the next, etc. Plenty of work, but if you don't want to drive you pretty much have to do it that way.

Sorry it is so complicated.

Trains are also privately run, but extremely tightly supervised. You can find out about every commercial passenger train at nationalrail.co.uk and the website is easy to use.

JC and Nigel: Again, thank you,both. Being older, traveling alone and not wanting to drive does complicate the issue of accessing various gardens. That is exactly why I started planning a whole year early. I have my preconceived notions of what the UK is like based upon my prior visits there as a younger person with a spouse - we rented a car, I drove and she navigated and we did fine. Thus, there was no reason to try to noodle out getting from town or village to the garden and back. Different circumstances now and, so, I need different solutions. Will keep plodding along.

There have been some really good ideas that I will soon put into practice and then I will have a better idea how to approach this puzzle. One posting on another topic explained how to use Google Map to establish an itinerary. Then The National Trust has an electronic map with all their properties shown on it. Maybe I can merge the two and have a map that I can zoom down to the landscape level and have the details about rail lines, etc. Will see.

JC suggested the National Trust website and I have been poking at it for a while. I have found the properties list (PDF). Is that the list with the details about accessing the site? If not could you please forward the link?

As they say: "half the fun is getting there!" Thanks again. Chauncey

JC suggested the National Trust website and I have been poking at it
for a while. I have found the properties list (PDF). Is that the list
with the details about accessing the site? If not could you please
forward the link?

It’s really simple. I can’t forward a link of details about how to access every National Trust site because it’s on each individual page.

You’re not looking for a PDF list of properties. You simply find an NT property you’re interested in either via the map -
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/search?view=map -
or by typing the name into the search box. That will take you to a page full of details about that particular house or garden. There’ll you see some boxes that say Overview, Opening Times, Prices, How To Get Here, Facilities & Access, Contact Us.

Click on the one you’re interested in. You should check Opening Times before planning a journey, then look at How To Get Here.

I did a search for Snowshill Manor just as a random example. Here’s the Snowshill Manor home page: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/snowshill-manor-and-garden

And here’s the How To Get There page: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/snowshill-manor-and-garden#How%20to%20get%20here