Botanic Garden — Attraction in Kirklees

If the term "University Botanic Garden" conjures up a mental image of the examples in Oxford or Cambridge for you, you are likely to be rather disappointed by Durham's. It is less manicured and less exotic, but nonetheless it is worth visiting.

The formal section of the garden is not actually that formal, and you won't have to look very hard to spot the weeds. There are some wonderful natural areas including woodland, which are at their very best in spring, with spectacular displays of daffodils and bluebells. Autumn is also a colourful time due to the proliferation of trees.

Other features include a Japanese garden, alpine garden, giant metal fly sculpture, bird hide, and glasshouses. The glasshouses contain a desert area, and a rainforest area where you can make it "rain". There is a lovely collection of orchids as well as some creepy-crawlies (thankfully behind glass), most notably the giant Atlas Moths.

The cafe is good, if not that varied, and there is a small gift shop. Both of these are accessible without paying the entry fee for the garden. The staff are friendly and helpful, and can provide trail maps/treasure hunts for children to follow.

It is certainly possible to spend a very pleasant couple of hours here, especially if the weather is decent. I would recommend that locals purchase an annual pass so that they can experience the delights of the changing...

This place is OK for the 5 pound entrance fee per person but I fell it should be free as it's set in the middle of a university.

The overall place was not maintained enough for a place you have to pay to enter apart from the entrance area's around the coffee shop.

There were plant beds with signage and they were all weeds. Especially the science area and study's which should have been the most interesting bits for someone who studied horticulture. Not done to university standard compared to Eden Project, Kew Gardens, Sparsholt college/university Winchester.

Some of the art works were not explained, which was annoying.

Some fences where held to get with cable tyes which look bad and is no environment friendly. Also they had broken in someplace which was a bit dangerous for fencing and structures, one large bamboo piece had broken loose above head hight over a path on a structure.

The customer service was not great in the entrance, no introduction, no explanation of how to log car in to car park.

We stood awkwardly after saying hi in the entrance, waiting for a reply from a person at a till that sold cake and coffees because we did know where to pay to get in, better bigger signage would have been helpful along with the staff need retraining or training in the first place.

Coffee seating area looked nice but we...

Disappointing. If it were free I’d give 3 or maybe 4 stars, but for £5 entry a lot more needs to be offered.

There are some plants worth seeing- a couple of greenhouses with controlled temperatures for showcasing plants from various parts of the world. In the spectrum of UK botanical gardens I’d say the selection of plants on show here lands it in the middle.

Once you’ve seen the greenhouses there’s the rest of the sizeable grounds, that aren’t particularly well signposted or interesting. They are, however, quite spacious for a picnic or a rest on the grass, which appears to be what most people use this place for.

It also bears noting that, when I arrived around 2pm on a Saturday the place was overrun with children from a residential school, which meant that it was physically impossible to buy an entry ticket. There’s a management issue in allowing this many children into the place at once, particularly as the child:adult ratio of the group was so high. It caused chaos in the foyer, glass was smashed and there was so little room to move that it was a hazard.

As the only way to purchase an entry ticket is from the cafeteria till, it also means that at times when the cafe is busy, entrance to the gardens takes a long time, and at the time I visited the wait was...