Dane John Gardens
About
A public park built over a Roman-era burial mound that the Normans later topped with a motte-and-bailey fortress, landscaped into pleasure gardens between 1790 and 1803 by alderman James Simmons using a design credited to local nurseryman William Masters. The mound itself, reached by a path up its side, carries a stone monument and gives a view back over the surrounding gardens and the old city wall, which the park's paths run alongside. A genuinely local park, not just a heritage site, with a play area and open lawns used for everyday city life.
Photos
Highlights
- ✓Built on a Roman-era burial mound
- ✓Later the site of a Norman motte-and-bailey fortress
- ✓Landscaped into public gardens between 1790 and 1803
- ✓Runs alongside a surviving stretch of the medieval city wall
Tips
- →The path to the top of the mound has some steps; the surrounding lawns are flat and easy going.
- →A good picnic stop between the train station and the old town.
- →Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens, so it's a genuine heritage site as well as a park.
Best Season
More Nature Activities
Westgate Gardens
Riverside gardens just outside the Westgate, with mature trees and level paths along the Stour. A quiet, free counterpoint to the busy High Street.
Blean Woods RSPB Nature Reserve
A 509-hectare ancient woodland reserve near Canterbury with waymarked trails, nightingales, nightjars, the rare lesser spotted woodpecker, and spring bluebells.