There is more to Beaulieu than the acclaimed motor museum.  The footprint of the Cistercian Abbey church can still be seen next to the cloister and chapter house. One can only wonder what the building would have been like. One of only four monastic buildings to survive in tact is the Refectory which became  Beaulieu Parish Church.

Another building that survived in tact is the Domus. This was used as the living quarters for the lay brothers.

The Palace House, which is one of the best stately homes that I have visited houses houses a fine portrait gallery and retains its original  medieval features.

Just a short walk from the house is the Victorian’s garden which was created as a tribute to the Victorians’ immense contribution to our knowledge of plants and our enjoyment of gardens.

Within the garden is a sundial that was commissioned to mark the 50th birthday of Lord Montagu’s eldest son and his wife Ailsa, in 2011.

On significant dates, the shadow of the sphere will track along one of the curves crossing the hour lines. The dates are:

Winter solstice (purple), Ailsa Montagu’s birthday on 9th November (blue), Ralph Montagu’s birthday on 13th March (red), their wedding anniversary on 16th April (gold) and Summer solstice (green).

The sundial does not always agree with the clock. There are three reasons for this. First, Longitude: the sun takes four minutes to pass over one degree of longitude. Beaulieu is 1 deg 27′ West of the Greenwich meridian. The difference in longitude between Beaulieu and Greenwich makes a sundial at Beaulieu 5 minutes and 48 seconds slow to one at Greenwich. Second, the elliptical orbit of the earth round the sun and the tilt on the earth’s axis cause slight variations in the day length. This effect is known as the equation of Time and has a different value each day which makes the sundial up to 16 minutes fast for 15 minutes slow depending on the time of year. Finally, in summer clocks go forward an hour but sundials do not. The combined effects of the Equation of Time and longitude mean that the sundial at Beaulieu will be a maximum of 10 minutes fast in November and 20 minutes slow to the clock in February. The sundial will agree with Greenwich Mean Time in mid-September and mid-December.*

*from an information board next to the sundial