The Eden Project

The Eden project is located in an old disused Kaolinite ( clay ) pit and was the brain child of Tim Smit and architect Nicolas Grimshaw. The project took 2 years 6 months to complete and was opened on 17th March 2001 but far from stopping there Eden has an ongoing development ethic.

It is made up of a number of domes ( biomes) which contain plants from around the world. Each biome mimics a particular natural climate and is made up of hundreds of hexagons as well as some pentagons, in it's construction, each one a transparent lens of tough clear plastic. Two climates are represented the Tropical environment and the more temperate Mediterranean climate.

As well as plants in the tropical biomes some small tropical birds and lizards can be spotted by the more observant visitor as well as some local birds in the temperate biomes.

Eden is officially the home of the worlds largest greenhouse and also houses, in the education centre or core , the largest sculpture, from a single piece of stone, since the Egyptian times. It is twice the weight of any stone that makes up Stonehenge and weighs in at 70 tons. It represents the seed of a sunflower complimenting the core building which represents the sunflower.

Even though the biomes are crucial to the survival of certain tropical and sub tropical plants many more plants thrive in Eden's gardens with no covering at all . In fact three-quarters of Eden's plants grow outside in Cornwall's mild climate. Interestingly Eden is also the only place to be granted a licence to grow cannabis for education purposes in the U.K During the summer months Eden plays host to world class groups and events and in the winter has ice skating and other seasonal activities.

As the seasons change so do the plants and events happening at Eden so there is always something new to see and do all year round.

Cestria Bed & Breakfast is linked to the official Eden website and can offer our guests advanced/fast track tickets .