After we toured Fort Raleigh National Historical Site and overheard rehearsals for The Lost Colony play, we visited the Elizabethan Gardens envisioned in 1950 by a guests who had just visited the same sites we did.
Contacting the Garden Club of North Carolina, they suggested: a two-acre garden which was to typify the kind of garden a successful colonist might have built on Roanoke Island had the colonization succeeded. –Elizabethan Gardens History
GATE HOUSE
Built from handmade bricks in North Carolina, the Gate House looks like a 16th century orangery, used to overwinter citrus plants.
At the top of the entryway is Elizabeth I’s coat of arms.
KNOT GARDENS
Typical of the Elizabethan Era are these lacy knot gardens.
QUEEN’S WALK
From the Knot Garden we took the forested Queen’s Walk which ambles around the perimeter of the garden.
Beyond Elizabeth I’s statue, we saw a statue of Virginia Dare of the Roanoke Colony, the first child born in America…represented as the artist imagined she’d look in adulthood.
Across from the Virginia Dare statue, these steps lead to the Sunken Garden…although we continued on the Queen’s Walk…
COLONY WALK
…which led us to the Overlook Terrace, then the Colony Walk that led us here…imagine the settlers arriving to the colony.
See and listen to the waves in my video, here.
SUNKEN GARDEN
From there we ventured to the Sunken Garden formed of thirty-two parterres surrounding an Italian fountain.
Centered within each of the four sets of parterres is a statue: Apollo, Diana, Venus, and Jupiter.
Surrounding the garden are eleven foot pleached allees.
Together they form the grandest of spaces in the Elizabethan Gardens.
Enjoy a panoramic view of the gardens while listening to the fountain in my video, here.
GREAT LAWN
Also enclosed by the Queen’s Walk was the Great Lawn, proving the value of the estate since so much unused land simply sat for enjoyment.
WOODLAND GARDEN
…then we returned to the Queen’s walk to see the quaint statuary of the Woodland Garden.
ROSE GARDEN
Nearing the end of the Queen’s Walk, we arrived at the Rose Garden dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II.
The photo below is of the Virginia Dare Rose, cultivated to withstand the salty winds of this Atlantic coastal land.
Proving that goal, I’ve seen this rose throughout the Outerbanks.
This sundial is 500 years old.
Although the signage stated this rose is from Queen Elizabeth II’s own garden, when I cross-referenced that a different color rose is shown…so I’m not sure. But her rose is at least somewhere in this garden!
KNOT GARDEN
Completing our time on the Queen’s Walk, we returned to the Knot Garden from a different angle.
