Russell Gardens

It's been a gorgeous, warm, clear day. We sat with our flasks on one of the seats which are dotted along the terrace against the warmth of the old brick retaining wall of the walled garden, and looked down on the beautiful shadow patterns of the trees on the lawns below us. There's another view, of the patterns without the context, in the extras, along with more views of the hillside gardens. 

The garden is being well looked after and maintained by Dover district council, and I hope in time they will be able to restore the walled garden too. It's part of the Kearsney Abbey parks, but is smaller and more formal and tends to be a bit quieter than the main park. There is a good and well landscaped play area, a remarkably tasteful toilet block, and across the road there is parking for both parks, a café and, to their immense credit, a fairly new Changing Place accessible toilet with hoist and changing bed. 

The river Dour runs along the bottom of the valley, close to the road, and the garden slopes steeply up towards the Edwardian house to which it originally belonged. There's a bit more information about the history, and a different view, in my blip from our last visit.