Poison Garden created by Duchess
The garden is kept behind black iron gates, and people are only allowed in if they are on a guided tour.
Visitors are strictly prohibited from smelling, touching, or tasting any plants, and some people still occasionally faint from inhaling toxic fumes while walking around it.
The garden was opened as part of a series of new developments in 2005 and was the brainchild of the Duchess of Northumberland, Jane Percy, who was inspired to create it following a visit to an apothecary garden in Italy.
She said at the time: “I wondered why so many gardens around the world focused on the healing power of plants rather than their ability to kill. "I felt that most children I knew would be more interested in hearing how a plant killed, how long it would take you to die if you ate it, and how gruesome and painful the death might be.”
The garden’s specialist guides are thoroughly clued up on each of the 100 species of deadly plants and their grisly uses throughout history. Signs warning of the dangers faced by tasting, touching or even smelling the flora are numerous, although still not enough to combat natural human curiosity as in the summer of 2014, seven visitors fainted after inhaling toxic fumes.
Many of the plants, such as Laurel, produce cyanide, while giant hogweed is phototoxic, meaning it will burn skin and can give you blisters for up to seven years.
The most dangerous plants are kept in cages and the garden is secured each evening behind gates which are guarded by security cameras 24 hours a day.