SRS, firstly #I'll just make the comment a previous post of your had me looking up how to do pulleys. I can be practical on some things and less so on others...

On mowers, we have 2 now. One is a fairly heavy self propelled (Toro which I believe is a popular American make). It's a bit of a pain to get in and out of the shed as I need full height to clear a step and go to lowest to park it but otherwise is pretty good. The task now is to keep what is really a farm track (but includes that bit of "lawn" on the land we rent) clear. A few hundred yards but not that great a width. I do it in stages but am pretty well unaware of the weight of the machine (which responds to how fast you walk/ press on the bar) going in a straight line and overall, with a 55cm cut,I'd think gets the job done with minimal passes. It also mulches the grass pretty well.

The other is a (Ryobi) battery one, for some places where the big one is just too wide and bulky. It has its limitations in that it does not like wet grass or the grass being too long so you want to keep on to of things when possible but I'd say it's as good as the old mains electric machine we used to have, without the hassle of a cable and would meet all our needs if we now didn't feel it a good idea to keep the (off our patch) rest of the path clear for log delivery and access to a septic tank. This around 12" cut thing is feather light.

I guess much would depend on the size of your garden and the terrain (and I don't think I could provide you with reasonable pointers) but I wonder have you looked into the battery ones?