Scott's Grotto, Herts

I made a trip to Hertfordshire, which is north of London, in order to see Scott's Grotto. The grotto is located in the town of Ware, up on the hill opposite the railway station. It is classed as the UK's most extensive shell lined grotto. 

Scott's Grotto is in the garden of Amwell House, where the poet John Scott once lived. The house still exists, it is on the main road at the bottom of the hill and has been turned into apartments. The gardens stretched from the house up the hill to where the grotto is, but none of the gardens remain except for the small area around the grotto and summerhouse. Photo of Amwell House taken from Google Streetview

The grotto was built in the 1760s. It was open to visitors and became quite a tourist attraction in the 19th century. It was nearly demolished in the 1960s to make way for housing, but fortunately was saved by the local council in 1974, who have now had it for 50 years. 

It is now open on Saturdays and Bank Holiday Mondays from 2 - 4.30 pm between 1st April and 30th September. It costs just £2 to go in, which is a bargain! View of the grotto from the entrance gate -

I went up to the summer house first, which is above the grotto at the highest part of the garden. There would have been good views over the river valley. The summerhouse is octagonal in shape and was used by Scott for writing his poetry. The summerhouse was extensively renovated after 1990. 

John Scott (1731 - 1783) was a Quaker landowner, his father had moved from London to escape the smallpox. He constructed other summerhouses and seats in the garden. Today there are lots of woollen knitted animals dotted around the garden, which I found rather odd!

The drum in this alcove represents Scott's best remembered poem, The Drum, an anti-war poem written in 1783. 

I walked down to the grotto. Scott started building the grotto with the porch and chamber behind it, when finished in 1764, he called it his Shell Temple. The remainder of the grotto was finished by 1773. 

In the 1990s, the entrance porch and dome, which had been demolished in the 1960s, was rebuilt. 

Inside you are given a brief explanation then left to walk through the grotto on your own. You can borrow a torch as most of it is not lit. The corridors are rather narrow. Most are lined with flint stone and shells, though one long curving corridor is undecorated.

Air tunnel in first chamber -

Looking along a flint lined tunnel -

Passage with seats -

A seat -

This is the grand chamber, which, apart from the impressive shell decorations, is also the only room to be lit -

The Scott's Grotto official page. And see more on IanVisits .