The Doctor stood looking around him, surveying the peaceful scene with quiet enjoyment. The TARDIS stood amidst picturesque ivy-covered ruins. There was scarcely a breeze to stir the leaves and the tall grass. It might have been a fine summer afternoon on Earth, thought the Doctor. Except for the faint purple haze that hung in the air. Even this, exotic though it was, seemed somehow to add to the atmosphere of reassuring calm.
Turlough sat with his back against a ruined wall, peacefully sketching. He appeared to be in an exceptionally good mood. “It really is marvellous here. I feel so calm and relaxed!”
“It’s the high bombardment of positive ions in the atmosphere,” said the Doctor.
Tegan came over to join them, sniffing the air. “It’s like Earth, after a thunderstorm.”
“Same cause, same reason.”
“It’s beautiful here.”
The Doctor nodded. “For some, the Eye of Orion is the most tranquil place in the Universe.”
Turlough yawned and stretched. “Can’t we stay here, Doctor?”
“Why not – for a while at least. We could all do with a rest.”
The stood for a moment in a companionable silence, drinking in the atmosphere of peace and tranquillity.
Taken from the 1983 Doctor Who ‘The Five Doctors’ Target novelisation by Terrance Dicks
This summer my husband and I visited Portmeirion in Wales, the famous Italianate village designed by Sir Clough Willams-Ellis. I’d been when I was sixteen, and had convinced my family to holiday there as I’d become obsessed with it having seen repeats of the 1960s TV series ‘The Prisoner‘ that had been filmed there. My husband had never been and wasn’t overly familiar with the Patrick McGoohan series but knew of the village as it had been used in the classic Doctor Who series and was curious to visit.
Now this blog isn’t going to be about Portmeirion as I had planned, though one will be sure to follow as it’s been used in so many shows. No, instead it’s going to be about the lesser known Plas Brondanw Gardens, once the family home of Sir Clough William Ellis, just a few miles away from his fantasy creation.
When we were researching our visit we had turned to YouTube, as always, for planning and inspiration. We found a series of videos made by a dedicated Doctor Who fan @Doctorwholocationsguide who films himself, wearing the appropriate Doctor’s costume when visiting locations used in the show. He focuses on one story at a time, it’s a fantastic resource for anyone wanting to know exactly where filming took place. We looked up ‘The Masque of Mandragora’ which was a 1976 Tom Baker story that had used Portmeirion to recreate 15th century Italy.
YouTube then suggested another video by the same creator about the 20th Anniversary special ‘The Five Doctors’. Thinking it probably involved at least one Welsh quarry we watched it. It was a revelation to both of us that some scenes had been filmed only four miles from Portmeirion at the actual family home of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis and which today had gardens and a tearoom that were open to the public. We had to visit! Plas Brondanw – The Locations Guide to Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures (doctorwholocations.net)
From our home we could drive to Portmeirion and back in a day, but we wanted to make a weekend of it, especially now we had somewhere to visit the day after too. So, one Saturday morning in July we drove to Portmeirion, arriving about 11am and spent most of the day day exploring at a leisurely pace. The weather was fine and warm, despite a forecast for heavy rain. We set ourselves up first with tea and scones in the main village café, where we were pestered for crumbs by the most aggressive robin. We walked down to the beach, back up through the woods and, as usual, took far too many pictures. We stopped to watch a wedding party pose for photos after the ceremony in the Hercules Hall. They were greeted with a guard of honour holding pitchforks, we think they were farmers…
After a bit of lunch, we checked out the gift shops and just enjoyed taking time to explore. It was late afternoon by the time we headed to a nearby village with the almost unpronounceable name of Penrhyndeudraeth where we had arranged to stay the night in very nice room above a pub called Y Griffin.
Sunday morning, after a slight detour to find breakfast, we drove to Plas Brondanw Gardens; just a short drive through some steep and twisty country roads. While Portmeirion had been bustling with tourists when we parked up, just after 10am, there was only one solitary car that had arrived before us. Pleased to have the place almost to ourselves we made the short walk to the tearoom to buy our admission tickets.
It had rained heavily during the night and a thunderstorm had blown over so the grass and trees where damp and cobwebs stood out prominently against the evergreens. The air smelt fresh and it was lovely to be in the mature garden. Handsome well kept lawns and topiary, as well as a massive oak tree, are set within its walls with beautiful views of the Welsh countryside.
My husband had come prepared with screenshots on his phone and there were a few scenes we were looking for especially. There is a scene with the First Doctor walking down some distinctive steps and we found them quite easily; the gardens aren’t too large and there are distinct sections edged by hedges. They’re also remarkably unchanged, other than some trees and bushes that had grown considerably in the last forty years; others had been cut down and replaced.
The next scene location we wanted to track down was one where the First Doctor is whisked away by the ‘time scoop’. We found this on the main lawn by matching the hedges in the background. In the middle of the lawn there is a handsome tree with seating below it and we came across the first people we’d seen that morning sat beneath it. As I directed Andy to stand in the right spot to take his picture we were approached by one of group who kindly offered to take a picture of both of us together. I started to explain what we were trying to recreate and he replied “Oh, I know exactly what you’re doing, I’ve come here for the same reason.” A fellow geek!
We wandered a bit more, just taking in the pleasantness of the morning. We took seats outside the cafe and enjoyed a pot of tea with some delicious traditional Welsh bara brith as slowly a few more people arrived at the gardens. We identified another scene that had been shot just by where we were seated, some statutes had moved and a patio extended but a distinctive small pond remained.
We could have explored the house, part of which is an art gallery (although oddly not managed by the people who operate the garden and cafe) but the weather threatened to turn and we had one more location to find before we needed to head home.
From the YouTube video we knew that another Five Doctors location was only a short walk away through the nearby woods. A conversation with the café staff confirmed we just had to go through a gate across the road and make our way up the hill.
Our destination was a stone folly know as the Outlook Tower, also built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, a pre-ruined castle at the top of a hill overlooking a valley. It was used for scenes with the Fifth Doctor and his companions Tegan and Turlough as they relaxed on the alien world Eye of Orion. Unlike the gardens, we had this place completely to ourselves. It was a lovely place and like the scenes it was used for in the story itself for us too it was just like earth after a thunderstorm!
Other than the trees and foliage being more mature and overgrown nothing had changed over the forty years since the filming. Andy had come prepared with a sketch pad, to recreate scenes with Turlough, and a toy TARDIS of course, so we spent some time trying to find where the shots were taken.
Plas Brondanw Gardens is a genuine hidden gem which we would never have thought to visit if it hadn’t been for Doctor Who and a well researched YouTube video. Whether you’re a Doctor Who fan or not, if you’re planning to visit Portmeirion it really is worth heading off the beaten track and taking the time to add an extra stop to your trip. You could easily do both in a day but sometimes it’s nice, when you can, to take the slow path. After all, how often do you get to visit the most tranquil place in the universe?
From scene to seen 