Caerhays, where colour and sport collide

harles Williams, the current owner of Caerhays Castle, on Cornwall’s Roseland Peninsula, is both a renowned plantsman and a dedicated game shot. He summarises neatly the allure of his family seat by recognising that “the history of any one house is often just that – the history of a single house. However, it is from that house that people have travelled the world, fought wars or enjoyed life. A part of the interest of Caerhays has been the long association which it has enjoyed with plant hunting and hybridisation.” Williams is now the guardian of a National Collection of magnolias, as well as a world-famous rhododendron garden and perhaps one of the best shoots in the West Country. The present garden traces its origins to JC Williams, who owned the estates of Caerhays, Burncoose and Werrington, in Cornwall, and bought his first 25 Chinese rhododendrons from the Veitch Nursery in 1903. By 1905, he was busily transforming the coastal scrubland behind the castle into a pastiche of the misty valleys of south-west China, with