maccallum more museum and gardens

Lots of shade. Birds. Have gone in past years for CMH memorials where I released monarch butterflies.

My wife and I have the week off from work and decided to take a couple of day trips. We love visiting gardens and, seeing the two "5 star" reviews listed here, decided to take us on the 3 hour drive (6 hour round trip) to Chase City and visit these. If we lived within half an hour of these gardens, I might consider them to be a neat place to go for a picnic. If we had stumbled upon them like Cheryl H, we would have been pleasantly surprised. However, they are definitely not worth a special trip such as ours. First, there were no flowers whatsoever in bloom outside of a few potted plants here and there. The rose garden was composed of about 9 plants that had zero buds on them. The entire property was basically trees and ground covering such as ivy. The main attraction is the statuary. Granted, many of the peaces were pretty interesting, but many of them were also in disrepair. Few fountains were actually working, a number of lights had bare wires sticking out of the top of the posts, and one angel statue was actually held together with black duct tape! We spent about an hour walking through the grounds and covered all of it, even with stopping to look at each note on the provided map. We had planned on eating a picnic lunch there, but mosquitoes kept attacking me and so we retreated to our car and made our getaway. My wife and I are very easy going and easily entertained and we did get some pretty neat pictures, so we didn't leave upset. I imagine, however, that someone else who makes the long trip there with high expectations could be easily frustrated with what they find. I give it a "one star" simply to balance the other two five stars. If I lived local and didn't need to travel, I might be tempted to rate it 2 or 3. I guess I should add that we did not go into the museum- our expectations were so low for it after having traversed the property that we didn't want to shell out the money for it.

We just stumbled across this. We were driving down the street and saw a beautiful stone wall. We pulled over just to look at it and then we noticed a sign for a gift shop. We went in and donated $2 to just walk the gardens (the museum would have been $5 but it was getting to late to do that). Nothing was blooming when we were there but we were told there were theme gardens, an arboretum, roses and wildflowers, fountains and statues. The gardens are completely shaded with paths going through it. It was quiet and peaceful.

A more romantic spot for a 34th anniversary picnic and stroll would be hard to find!You can see the photos I shared on MacCallum More's Facebook page, or by visiting http://photopeach.com/album/19u2ddl A variety of beautiful 100-year old trees grace the property, providing welcome shade and dappled sunlight between and surrounding the gorgeous stone walls, arches, stone steps, stone patios, and sculptures, sculptures, sculptures. The sculptures range from newly-placed to moss-covered, and are nested in the flower gardens, picnic area, lawns, gazebos, and walls. Every turn you take, everywhere you look, your eye feasts on varied textures, floral scents waft over you, breezes cool you. What a setting for a wedding ~ We arrived just as the museum and gift shop were closing; lucky for us the gardens were still open.We'll be back to stroll the gardens again and to explore the museum. We are thoroughly intrigued after reading the information on the several plaques placed along the pathways. We spent over three hours there, enjoying every moment!