None — ADAIRSVILLE, Ga.-- Another summer season of vacations has come and gone. Beaches, resorts and casinos have given way to catching the bus, studying for tests and football practices.
For many in the Atlanta area, once school is back in session, vacations consist of quick getaways.
Nelson's News on wsbtv.com recently ventured up Interstate 75 to Adairsville to check out one of the top destinations for Atlanta travelers, Barnsley Gardens. It's about an hour north of downtown Atlanta, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
"It's almost like a throwback in time," Barnsley Gardens general manager Scott Mahr told wsbtv.com.
"Because you have the historical aspect with the story of the Barnsley family, the historical ruins, the gardens, the plant life and the museum," he said. "And then you have this boutique, relaxed, luxury and blue jeans-type resort with all these wonderful amenities."
Barnsley Gardens offers guests golf, clay shooting, fly fishing, hiking, horseback riding and spa services.
The historical offerings may be just as popular as the amenities, too.
"Godfrey Barnsley was a very talented young man, very interesting young man from England," Barnsley Gardens historian Clent Coker said.
"He left England in 1824 and came over to the United States, landed in Savannah, Ga.," Coker continued. "He went to work as a clerk for a cotton broker and in less than five years after his arrival, he had developed a whole new system for shipping American cotton to the foreign mills and markets. It worked and it made him wealthy."
Nearly 20 years later, he moved to what is now the site of Barnsley Gardens to build an estate for his wife, Julia. She was in declining health and he thought the northern Georgia climate would be better for her. She died three years later.
The estate was vandalized during the Civil War and a tornado hit it in 1906. When the final member of the Barnsley family died, the estate sat untouched for 40 years. The Barnsley Gardens resort tried to save and restore as much of the home and gardens as it could about 10 years ago.
Today, the ruins are part of the resort. Guests can tour the ruins, walk through the Gardens and Coker is around to share the Barnsley story.
Barnsley Gardens also has a fairy godmother. Denise Webb was named the property's fairy godmother by former owner Prince Hubertus Fugger. Her job is to make each visit to the resort a magical one.
"We feature things called love spells," Webb said. "That may be rose petals, candles, champagne. We can get you into trouble or we can get you out."
"We might do 'Shake Your Coconuts' where your room is decorated as a bathtub with a grass skirt around it and jungle juice to drink, something very, very fun and out of the ordinary so that you can stop and remember what really matters," she said.
For more on Barnsley Gardens, click here.
WSBTV
