What is this and how to get rid?

[unCliche]

We're about to complete on our first home in the next two weeks and I've been thinking about all the things I'd like to do it, and one of those things is to get rid of this random circular structure in the garden, but what actually is it??

And should I get a hammer to it?

Looks like it might be a sundial?

I was going to say a filled in pond but now @user1654236589623652 has said it I agree it looks like a sundial. I don't think you're going to offend any spirits or cause a sink hole if you smash it but I bet it would be a lovely spot for a little patio table.

It's a place for your rotary drier. I would use it.

Water feature - fountain not in the middle with stones for drainage ?

I was thinking sundial too @user1654236589623652. I suppose it was meant to be a fancy feature once upon a time.

The garden is quite hilly and would be difficult to put tables and chairs around it @Heyha

I would just double-check with the vendors that it's not covering something up (e.g. old cess pit) before smashing into it with a sledge hammer!

@rbe78 🤢🤢 the searches came back fine so I'm hoping that would have shown up if that's the case 🤢

If I'm honest, I'm ready to take a hammer to the whole garden.

I think it might be a place to put a rotary drier in which case it’s very useful.

It might be covering an old air raid shelter. You could remove the circle feature and use as a patio.

What's under the gravel? Could you dig through it to investigate before employing more drastic means?

Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to build that. There must be a reason for it . I think I would leave it as it is and plan a trip to a good garden centre to buy lots of lovely pots to grow lovely things in that you can see from the house because I imagine that with that slope you only see grass. Herbs would be great, agapanthus, dahlias, pelargoniums, parlour palm, New Zealand flax........

“Beware of the bearded dragon” I misread your post and didn’t see the l in gravel. Though come to think of it, there was a house advertised recently where the previous owner hadn’t moved out in a manner of speaking.

😱 @viques a grave would be less than ideal 😂😂

@BewareTheBeardedDragon that'll be the first course of action! Check under gravel 😂😂

I've emailed the estate agent to ask the vendor about it. If it's nothing more than some fancy decoration, then I'm getting rid of it.

Current view from the upstairs window in photo. I'd rather flatten the land between the two levels and create one big grass area then plant some lovely things around the edges.

I did initially miss the l off myself, but caught it before posting. Shouldn't have bothered

Gosh I would keep it as a flat place to sit! At least until you know what the cost of terracing the whole lot will be, because I reckon the price tag for that will be LOADS.

As the proud owner of a sloping garden, I saw cherish the flat bits you have. You could have lovely things spilling over the edges of that all summer long. It could be gorgeous!

@LIZS

It might be covering an old air raid shelter. You could remove the circle feature and use as a patio.

Air raid shelter was my first thought too. We’ve got similar in the city near here, where the gardens are sloped down like that. Air raid shelters were built in to the slope and some houses have retained them. Having said that, the house doesn’t look like it’s old enough?

My grandma's back garden had an air raid shelter, grassed over and disguised as a rockery. It was fan-fucking-tastic for jumping off the top of, over the rockery and landing on the lawn. We were heartbroken, despite being adults, when she had it removed. Although I now have a load of her rockery rocks in my garden, as my Dad saved them from the skip.

(((Dads)))

He must have had them stashed in his garden for 25 years in case they came in handy.

The estate agent got back to me and it's an old pond! So 👏👏👏 for those of you who guessed correctly. I do wish it had a more extravagant story behind it 😂 apparently it attracted a lot of wildlife! Including frogs 💕 how sweet! Still getting rid of it though 😂😂

@MrsBertBibby dad's really are the best! Such a lovely and thoughtful thing for him to do

Isn’t it kind of supporting the garden bit at the top?!

I would definitely keep levels rather than flattening it off, sloping gardens are tricky.

@whatswithtodaytoday I might level the garden in two sections and have a step going down into the lower level. The lower section is quite slopy and I'd prefer not to twist an ankle going down it 😁 I've seen some gardens that have steps going down the middle with flowerbeds and plants growing on either side like in the image, but without all the paving.

Yes that looks lovely - you can have lots of pretty plants cascading down it and growing between the steps.

We used to live somewhere with a very long, sloping garden (down to a river at the bottom) and I remember my mum cursing it because it was so difficult to garden and we had nowhere flat to sit.