More than 130 different kinds of ferns adorn the trees, rocks and undergrowth of Fern Walk. The damp, shaded environment gives us an inkling of how the world might have looked hundreds of millions of years before present when ferns were the dominant form of plant life. The vast swamps they formed have, over the millennia, metamorphised into the fossil fuel deposits modern humans are now so dependent on. Today, ferns grow in virtually all terrestrial ecosystems, but sadly many are gravely endangered as a result of habitat destruction and over-collection for use as ornamental plants and for medicine. Far from being the lesser, prosaic cousins of flowering plants, closer inspection will reveal a magical world of delicate filmy fronds, robust trunks and golden rhizomes.

Amidst monstrous ferns and misty air, you are invited to walk slowly through this evocative garden and explore the hidden paths off the main trail.