Where Bournemouth's Pleasure Gardens finally run out towards Westbourne and Branksome, the River Bourne opens into a quiet ornamental pond fringed by willows and shrubs. Coy Pond Gardens is a small, unhurried corner of the valley, the kind of place locals walk to rather than tourists seek out, with benches to sit and watch the ducks and carp go by.
History
The pond itself is Victorian, its name a corruption of "decoy" it began as a decoy pond, a feature built to attract wildfowl. The gardens that now surround it came later: in the early 1930s, the landscaped walk that runs the length of the River Bourne valley from Bournemouth's Pleasure Gardens, first laid out on the advice of the architect Decimus Burton in the 1840s, was extended north-west to take in the pond, creating Coy Pond Gardens on what had previously been allotment land.
The pond and rockery
The irregular-shaped pond has an island at its centre and is home to ducks and carp, with a gravel path circling the water and steps linking it to the gardens below. Running up the slope from Coy Pond Road is the site's best-known feature: a rockery around 550ft long, terraced into the hillside and replanted in the late twentieth century. It's a favourite short walk for a bit of green quiet away from the seafront crowds.
Visiting
Coy Pond Gardens is open access, free, and has no set hours. There's free street parking nearby and dogs are welcome throughout. The gardens are maintained jointly by BCP Council and the volunteer-run Friends of Coy Pond, a group founded in 1998 that still leads much of the planting and upkeep today.
It's a peaceful stop on a longer walk along the Bourne valley towards Bournemouth's central Pleasure Gardens, and sits close to the shops and cafés of Westbourne. Explore more of the area in our guide to things to do in Bournemouth.