A hillside park of eight Western-style residences from the 1860s and 1870s, beautifully maintained and arranged along sloping garden paths with views over the harbour. Glover House, built in 1863, is the oldest surviving Western-style building in Japan — a low bungalow with a cloverleaf floor plan and a deep verandah. The other houses came from elsewhere in the city and were moved here in the 1970s to preserve them. Outdoor escalators carry you up the hill and you walk down through the garden. Allow at least 90 minutes; longer if you also visit the small Mitsubishi museum on site. Beautiful at dusk when the lights come on.
Glover Garden
A story
Thomas Glover, a Scottish merchant who arrived in Nagasaki at 21, became one of the principal foreign supporters of the Meiji Restoration — he smuggled weapons to the anti-shogunate clans and arranged for promising young samurai to study in Britain. His residence overlooks the harbour where he ran his shipping operations, and Puccini is widely believed to have been inspired by his Japanese wife when he wrote Madame Butterfly.