This started simply enough when two friends decided that it would be nice to have somewhere to sit and enjoy the view down Coverdale. That was in 1989 and they are still building! The Forbidden Corner was never conceived as a public garden or visitor centre, it was and largely still is a private folly that has had the role forced onto it. It may not seem a garden in the traditional sense but it actually encapsulates many garden features with centuries of traditions. The idea of a sheltered seat to admire a view from can be traced back to the pleasure gardens of the middle ages, follies also have a long and illustrious history with many fine examples still with us from the 18^th century, the use of hidden water jets to wet and shock guests have long been popular, mazes and trompe l’oeil have long been used to surprise and confuse visitors, and the shear self-indulgence of creating such a thing for your own amusement is one of the defining features of what a garden is.

Though often seen as about growing plants a garden is much more than simply that and the Forbidden Corner does an excellent job of illustrating that. Gardens are about pleasure, their history can be traced back to the pleasure grounds, and it is often forgotten that a garden must give pleasure to its creator and hopefully also its visitors, so by providing further pleasure for its creator.

In this garden though the creator has reversed the roles of plants and structure so that now the plants largely serve as a supporting cast while the hard landscaping provides the entrainment. Personally the role of the plants has been pushed a little too far to the back but still experience does an excellent job of reinforcing the message that gardens should be fun.