Saltram’s historic 18th-century Great Terrace carriage ride is now open for summer.
Once offering dramatic arrivals by boat and carriage, the terrace would have revealed sweeping vistas over the Plym estuary to Dartmoor
Wander through ancient woodland alive with blossom, birdsong, wildflowers, and pollinator-friendly trees
From an ornamental folly to a riverside amphitheatre, rediscover one of Devon’s most enchanting Georgian garden landscapes
A hidden gem of Georgian garden design has reopened for summer at a National Trust property in Devon, as Saltram’s historic Great Terrace – once a grand 18th-century carriage ride – welcomes visitors once again.
Created around 1750 by John Parker I and Lady Catherine Parker, the Great Terrace at Saltram, in Plymouth, was the centrepiece of the historic pleasure grounds, offering guests sweeping views across the Plym estuary, from Plymouth Sound to Dartmoor. Visitors would once arrive by boat and travel this leafy route by horse and carriage, passing the ornamental Castle Folly and emerging at what is now the Long Border. Known affectionately in later years as the Green Ride, this elevated path became a treasured part of the estate’s formal arrival experience and landscape design.
Closed during the winter months to protect the delicate grass surface, the route reopens each spring in its full glory. Today, the Great Terrace leads visitors through ancient woodland alive with blossom and birdsong. “It’s one of the oldest and most magical parts of the garden,” says Saltram’s Head Gardener, Martin Stott. “You’ll walk beneath flowering lime, beech and chestnut trees, past scented rhododendrons and wildflowers like bluebells, cow parsley and buttercups. The biodiversity here is incredible.”
The Great Terrace is home to many beautiful broadleaf trees such as lime, beech, poplar, alder, rowan and chestnut, all which flower throughout the season providing a long window of nectar for pollinators. Underneath the flowering trees and equally impressive towering conifers, you will find scented rhododendron and beneath them, the ground cover at this time of year is awash with cow parsley and perfoliate alexanders.
Dotted in amongst those are a plethora of wildflowers - campion, bluebells, buttercups, veitch, sorrel, nettles and several species of geranium, all technically considered weeds but not when they are in the right place as they are here.
This part of the estate once featured woodland amphitheatres, a manmade quartz-lined cave, a riverside bathhouse, and an ornate painted seat which Theresa Parker – Saltram’s great garden visionary – is thought to have later converted into a decorative aviary. Novelist Fanny Burney described the area in 1789 as “truly enchanting… my sweet wood, abounding in seats of all sorts.”
The reopening of the Great Terrace invites today’s National Trust visitors to rediscover this landscape as it was once designed – not just as a garden, but as an experience. Alongside the Great Terrace, Saltram’s garden still showcases the Orange Grove, the restored 18th-century Orangery, and a woodland amphitheatre overlooking the River Plym, each echoing the Parker family’s ambition to create an immersive and entertaining outdoor environment.
Saltram’s garden – once a fashionable Georgian showcase for design, planting and outdoor entertainment – continue to evolve, with a careful balance of conservation and creativity. With summer in full bloom, the reopening of the Great Terrace offers a unique opportunity to walk in the footsteps of history, and experience a rare surviving glimpse of 18th-century garden grandeur.
For more information on Saltram, visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/