The launch of the Trail

The Ladies Linn

Scan of a black and white postcard, featuring a waterfall called the Ladies Linn passing below a decorative stonework arch
The Ladies Linn, from an early 20th-century postcard. (From the All Killearn Archive collection.)

The Ladies Linn in the Glen was once part of the pleasure garden of the Place. It is a small, part natural and part man-made waterfall. The pool below may have been used by the ladies of the Place for bathing. The decorative stonework over the waterfall and the glade of yew trees protecting the spot draw upon the romantic interpretation of Classical ideals, popular in the late 18th century. The stonework of the Ladies Linn was restored in the 1990s.

In the early 19th century, it was overlooked by a stone pavilion. It is thought it may have been used to serve tea, then a luxury and fashionable drink imported from China. An old photograph gives an impression of this building and some fragments of it have been identified.

Black and white photograph of the remains of an 18th cntury tea pavilion, taken in the early 20th-century
The remains of the early 19th-century pavilion that overlooked the Glen near the Ladies Linn, as they were in the early 20th century. It is thought it was used for serving tea, then a fashionable and exclusive drink.