Infinite Space

The turning gives nothing away. Planting screens the whole thing from the road, and drivers go past it looking for something that announces itself as a viewpoint. Behind the greenery the ground opens out over the north coast of Madeira: cliffs, open water, the roofs of Seixal below. The garden is one man's work — he laid it out on his own land and is often on site, weeding or fixing something. Small touches keep turning up as you walk through: a drink station, a cat that comes over to inspect new arrivals. The standing space at the edge takes one group at a time, so on a busy day you hold back until the people ahead move off and then step up.

• Easy to miss: the garden is screened by planting and shows nothing from the road — set the map pin before you drive up.
• Waiting: the edge takes one group at a time, and arrivals wait for the people in front to move off.
• Toilets and water: public toilets and a drinking water point stand within about 200 m, and one of the toilets is free.
• Winter: the planting is bare before the growing season, and the garden shows its bones; the coast view carries in any month.

Most people arrive by car, coming up from the coast road at Seixal — a couple of minutes' drive from the beach — and stop just short of the entrance, walking the last stretch. If the car is already parked down at the beach, walk the whole way instead: about 10 minutes uphill, and it takes the parking hunt out of the day. The entrance itself is a gap in the planting rather than a gate.

Best: earlier in the day, while spaces near the top are still free and the edge of the garden is empty enough to stand where you want.

Avoid: the afternoon — that is when spaces run out and the hunt for one begins.

In winter the planting is bare and the garden is at its plainest, but the cliffs and the water behind it read the same in any month, and the light off the north coast does the work.