Aburi Botanical Gardens

The Aburi Botanical Gardens cover 65 hectares on the Akuapem Ridge, about 450 metres above sea level. Established in 1890 under the British colonial government, the gardens were intended initially as an agricultural research station to test which tropical crops could thrive at this altitude. The research mission faded long ago, but the trees the early botanists planted remain — an astonishing canopy of palms, mahogany, silk-cotton, and flowering trees that makes the gardens feel more like a cathedral forest than a public park.

The layout is formal in places, with wide straight avenues flanked by towering royal palms, and wilder in others, where paths disappear into dense vegetation. The air is noticeably cooler than in Accra, and birdsong fills the gaps between the occasional tour group. A small pond near the centre attracts egrets and herons. The main entrance has a visitors' centre with maps and a modest exhibit on the gardens' history. Weekends bring families from Accra looking for shade and quiet; weekday mornings are much more peaceful. The attached restaurant serves basic Ghanaian food in a pleasant outdoor setting.

things to do sight garden
A story
The gardens were established in 1890 by the British colonial government primarily as an agricultural research station, not as a pleasure ground — the colonial officers stationed in the hills needed to know which tropical crops could be grown at altitude. Today the trees they planted as seedlings are giants, with some silk-cotton trees reaching 60 metres. The gardens supplied rubber plants to British colonies across Africa and Southeast Asia in the early 20th century, making them a quiet node in the global commodity trade.