Among its list of bullet points describing this property, the National Trust says it has: “Ghostly goings on: hazy figures, music and a strange herbal smell”. This slice of information is left unexplained, however, and I’ll leave it to your imagination as to what they mean by it. During my visit to this property, the only hazy figures I saw were fellow visitors caught up in the pouring rain, or others squelching through mud to get to Prospect Tower (more of later). As for music I did hear the occasional song from one of the many robins that have become so used to visitors to the Secret Garden that they will come right up to your feet if you chuck them a few crumbs from your half-eaten sandwich.

Robins will venture as close as your feet, if the prospect of a few crumbs is likely.

Perhaps the “strange herbal smell” comes from the garden, but all I noticed was the smell of dampness that only a January day in England can bring. The garden has a huge sign with Secret Garden and an arrow pointing to it, so I’m not sure why it has this name as many people obviously know it is there and if you don’t you soon will do. If you visit this garden, you must sit as I did in the small wooden shelter that gives you a great view of the Tamar River and Calstock Viaduct below. Here you will receive visits from the previously mentioned robins, especially if you sit and eat your sandwiches. What could be more English than to sit in a wooden shelter on a damp January day and eat egg and cress sandwiches while looking at a view and feeding stray robins? (I’m sure I’ve committed a great crime against grammar by saying looking at a view, but I have neither the time nor inclination to look it up and write the “correct” grammatical phrase, so tough.) The gardens are covered in snow drops, crocuses, daffodils and other January/February flowers. The gardeners have obviously thought about us late winter visitors and provided a bit of colour as I’m sure they have throughout the year.

I got some great photos of robins, who seem happy to perch and pose for the camera.

The house is closed during the winter (when I visited) so I didn’t get to see its Tudor interior or tapestries, which I’m sure are worth seeing. The most surprising aspect of this visit was discovering Prospect Tower, a folly that exists within a muddy field nearby. It certainly is a folly to visit it wearing white trainers, as I did, as they soon became caked with mud and will never be the same again. The strangest thing about this building is that it is triangular and the walls are concave, which is difficult to capture in a photograph as it just looks like a conventional four-sided construction, when in fact it isn’t. It is entered through a wooden door at the side and the more adventurous can climb the spiral staircase inside to admire the view. There isn’t much light inside so it is not for the claustrophobic or those with vertigo or those afraid of the dark, but if you are all of those things then maybe you need a bit of a challenge. If you want to take daft photos of friends peeking out of the top of it, then you will also need a good camera with a zoom lens, otherwise they turn out as a small dot on top of a grey thing in the distance.

Prospect Tower is situated in a muddy field close to Cotehele House.

You can get your friends to pose at the top.

Access to Prospect Tower is through a mysterious wooden door and up a spiral staircase.