Scotland's Vogrie Park Offers Spring Walks
Scotland's Vogrie Country Park boasts 11+ miles of walks, streams, ponds, and picnic spots with early spring signs emerging for wellbeing boosts. Ireland's Victor's Way in Wicklow features 9 hectares of gardens, lakes, and granite sculptures for mindful strolls, while Surrey's unspoilt village park near Guildford is buzzing for cheerful spring family walks.
- The centerpiece of Vogrie Park is Vogrie House, a Victorian baronial mansion built in 1876 for James Dewar of the Dewar's whisky family. Before becoming a public park, the house served as a nursing home and a communications control center during the Cold War. - The name Vogrie is derived from the Gaelic "Bhog crioch," which translates to "marshy boundary land." In addition to walking trails, the park contains a 9-hole golf course and a miniature railway that operates on Sundays from April to September. - Ireland's Victor's Way was designed by its owner, Victor Langheld, as a contemplative garden for adults undergoing mid-life transitions and was permanently closed in September 2025. The park and its sculptures, which took over 30 years to create, are dedicated to the mathematician Alan Turing. - The granite and bronze sculptures at Victor's Way were hand-carved in Mahabalipuram, India, and represent the spiritual progression to enlightenment. Notable sculptures include several depictions of the Hindu deity Ganesha, a skeletal Buddha, and "The Split Man," which represents a state of mental dysfunction. - The park near Guildford is likely the National Trust's Hatchlands Park, a 400-acre estate in the village of East Clandon. Its parkland was designed by the notable landscape architect Humphry Repton around the year 1800. - Springtime visitors to Hatchlands Park can see a notable bluebell wood, as well as wood anemones and cherry blossoms. The estate offers several waymarked circular walks of varying lengths, from one to five kilometers.
