Scotland for Gardeners

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Scotlandfor Gardeners

the ultimate guideto scottish gardens,

nurseries andgarden centres

Kenneth Cox

Photography by Ray Cox

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This edition first published in 2014 byBirlinn Limited

West Newington House10 Newington Road

Edinburgheh9 1qs

www.birlinn.co.uk

Copyright © 2014 Kenneth CoxSee p. 505 for details of photographic copyright

The moral right of Kenneth Cox to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights

reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the express

written permission of the publisher.

isbn: 978 1 78027 189 7

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from

the British Library

Designed and typeset by Mark Blackadder

Every effort has been made to ensure that this book is as up to date as possible. Some information, however,

such as contact details and opening times is liable to change. The publishers cannot accept responsibility for any

consequences arising from the use of this book, or for any material on third-party websites.

Title page illustration: Crathes Castle

Printed and bound in China

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Contents

Introduction vii

A Short History of Gardening in Scotland ix

So What Makes a Good Garden? xiii

Scottish Gardening ‘Style’ and What Makes a ‘Scottish Garden’ xvii

The ‘Existential Gardener’: What Makes a Gardener Garden? xxvi

The Conservation and Preservation of Scotland’s Gardens xxviii

The Scottish Tourist Industry: Marketing and xxxivPromoting Scottish Gardens

Problems and Issues Facing Scottish Gardens and Horticulture xxxvii

Criteria for Entry in Scotland for Gardeners xli

Getting Around Scotland and Suggested Garden Itineraries xliii

How To Use This Book xlvi

Symbols xlix

Scotland for Gardeners

North (including Orkney and Shetland): 3Loch Ness, Black Isle, Caithness and East Sutherland

North-west: 49West Sutherland, Skye and Outer Hebrides

North-east: 75Aberdeenshire, Don and Dee valleys north toMoray Firth and across to A9

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East central: 143Angus, Perthshire, Fife

Argyll 253

West central: 291Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Arran and Bute, Glasgow to Stirling and the Trossachs

South-west: 349Dumfries and Galloway

South-east: 401Lothians and Borders west to M74

Scotland’s Garden Centre Chains 490

Horticultural Societies and Organisations; 492Tourism and Environmental Bodies

The Best of Scotland for Gardeners Lists 498

Bibliography 502

Acknowledgements and Photographic Credits 504

Index 506

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Introduction

I’m convinced that Scotland has a collection of the finest gardens, relative to itssize, of any country in the world. That’s my belief and I’d like to think that thisbook provides the evidence. First-time visitors are amazed at the diversity: fromhidden walled gardens of enormous size or strange shape, to swaying semi-tropical plants on windy seasides, ferry journeys to secret plant paradises, packedwoodlands of towering Himalayan treasures, sculptured stones carved witharcane riddles, vast expanses of aristocratic estates and small town gardens filledwith tiny alpine treasures. These are just a few examples of the surprises anddelights in store for those who take the time to explore the gardens of Scotland.Though I’ve lived in Scotland most of my life, in common with most of us I’dnot seen the half of it. All I needed was a good excuse to go and see for myselfall those places I’d heard or read about but never got around to visiting. It didnot take long for word to get around, and with all the suggestions, my gardensquest in 2007–09 turned into a two-year marathon resulting in almost 600

entries. And the second edition took me to a further 150 gardens and nurseriesas well as revisiting many old friends. It has been a pleasure and a privilege totravel the country, meeting many of Scotland’s finest gardeners and nurserymenas they showed me their treasures. This is a guidebook, certainly, but also verymuch a celebration of Scottish horticulture, both historical and contemporary.Some of Scotland’s gardens are well known internationally: Crarae; RoyalBotanic Garden, Edinburgh; Inverewe; Crathes and many more. Needless tosay, these gardens are included, as are all the gardens which open for significantperiods through the months of spring and summer. The book also features over200 private gardens, many of which open mainly under the banner of Scotland’sGardens (SG; formerly Scotland’s Gardens Scheme) perhaps once or twice ayear, some only every second year. Many are happy to accept visitors outsideofficial opening times, but only by appointment. The garden centres and mostof the nurseries listed open to visitors; a few are principally mail-order businessesand do not encourage personal callers. Every garden and nursery listed hassomething to offer. Some are wonderful at any time, for others it pays to visitmainly when their star turns are at their peak, whether these are snowdrops,rhododendrons, roses or perennials. The book also covers a wealth of specialistsocieties, organic gardens, allotments, community gardens and gardens used fortherapy, as well as some of the country’s most outstanding woodlands andwildflower sites. Land art is also covered in some detail. Gardens can and shouldbe deemed part of Scotland’s cultural and artistic wealth and heritage, in the

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same way our historic buildings are. Gardens are complex and dynamic entitieswhich evolve over time, providing a great deal of pleasure both to those whocreate and those who admire them.

As well as describing gardens and nurseries, I have tried to considerScotland’s garden heritage in the widest context, examining its contribution toculture, landscape, architecture, history, pleasure and leisure. I examine gardens’historical importance, plant collections, design and aesthetics, and monitor howactively each site is being gardened. My aim has been to evaluate what we havein Scotland, how good it is, how safe or at risk this heritage is, and how thingsmay change in the future. From time to time I have suggested ways that gardensmight be improved. I realise that some might find all this controversial orpresumptuous, but I hope that with the inevitable time constraints most peoplehave, readers will find the assessments useful so they can choose to go and visitgardens most suited to their tastes and enthusiasms. It goes without saying thatassessing gardens is a subjective exercise, and I don’t expect readers to agree witheverything I say. My aim is not to criticise, but to celebrate Scotland’s magni-ficent horticultural tradition in its widest sense. Above all, I want to encourageeveryone, whether resident in Scotland or just visiting, to step out andexperience this country’s horticultural wonders.

A group of garden designers and journalists under the banner ThinkinGardens held a symposium at RHS Wisley in 2007. Garden writer StephenAnderson argued that it should be more widely accepted that gardens can bewritten about with an analytic, deconstructive eye. He suggests that too manypeople are frightened of the idea of gardens being approached this way, and theword ‘criticism’ is seen as inevitably pejorative. In fact constructive criticism isthe greatest respect a garden can be paid; it may seek to argue the writer’sopinions, of what is good and possibly bad about a garden, but more impor-tantly it will show how a garden makes its effects, and give it a wider culturalcontext by comparing it to other gardens. It should demonstrate a garden’sambitions and the extent to which they are achieved. To this I would add thatunless we are prepared to judge or evaluate gardens properly, we cannot addressthe issues of whether gardens can and should be conserved and how conser-vation should be managed and funded.

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A Short History ofGardening in Scotland

Scots have been referred to as ‘a nation of gardeners’, but this is probably onlyin the last 250 years or so. Scots cannot boast the 1000 to 2000-year gardenhistory of Italy or Japan. Scotland certainly had medicinal and monastic gardensduring the Middle Ages, most of which were destroyed by cross-border warringor declined after the Reformation. Traveller accounts of Scotland up until themid eighteenth century lead us to believe that the general Scots population hadlittle or no interest in gardening or plant cultivation. In his History of GreaterBritain of 1521 John Major wrote of the Scots: ‘Neither do they plant trees orhedges for their orchards, nor do they dung the land.’ In the seventeenth centuryFynes Moryson wrote: ‘in the northern parts of England they have small pleas-antness, goodness, or abundance of Fruites and Flowers, so in Scotland theymust have lesse or none at all’. Dr Johnson, travelling later in the eighteenthcentury, was similarly unimpressed. Much of this may have been due to hisgeneral level of peevishness, but he was evidently disappointed in most of thegardens he saw, though ironically Johnson’s biographer and travellingcompanion, James Boswell, had a fine family garden at Auchinleck in Ayrshire.My grandfather, Euan Cox, admits in his History of Gardening in Scotland thatmost travellers were so badly fed in Scotland in those days that they tended toassume that the extremely narrow diet, based on the tiny range of crops grown,must have been due to ignorance or laziness. Even John Claudius Loudon,himself a Scot, writing in 1834, relates how Scottish gardeners have less skill thantheir southern counterparts (themselves often émigré Scots): ‘Gardeners inScotland have no idea of the care and expense taken and incurred in England toprotect the blossoms of fruit trees.’ He goes on to list all the errors suchgardeners make and then concludes that ‘Few country gentlemen in Scotlandwould go to the necessary expense to remedy these practices even if they wereapprised of them.’

Were these assessments fair? There are reports of significant Scottish gardensfrom the seventeenth century and earlier. In his book The Landscaping ofScotland, garden historian Christopher Dingwall lists several significant seven-teenth-century gardens and landscapes, of which little or no trace remains today.These include Pinkie, Saltoun House (four walled gardens), Lethington Castle(now known as Lennoxlove), all in East Lothian, Dalkeith Palace and HattonHouse near Edinburgh, and Coltness House and Hamilton Palace, in Lanark-shire. Daniel Defoe in his account of his extensive tour of Scotland in the 1720sdescribes Drumlanrig near Dumfries as ‘a palace so glorious, gardens so fine, and

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every thing so truly magnificent, and all in a wild, mountainous country’. In hisaccount Journey through Scotland (1732) John Macky is equally impressed. Incontrast, Reverend William Gilpin in his 1776 account, waxes lyrical on otherScottish gardens but lambasts Drumlanrig: ‘what contrivance hath been used todeform all this beauty . . . a vile waste of expense’. As Suki Urquhart concludesin The Scottish Gardener (2005), judgement of Scottish gardens is mostly amatter of ‘point of view’. Though I explore the origins of Scotland’s oldergardens in the individual entries in the book, I’m not attempting to write agarden history; but I’d have to admit that the story of Scottish gardening is oftenfascinating and illuminating. The people who created – and create – Scotland’sgardens are often the movers and shakers of their age. Scotland’s gardens tend tobe owned by families whose ancestors fought with or against Robert the Bruceor for or against Bonnie Prince Charlie, or massacred their neighbours or weremassacred by them, or were for a time the richest family in Scotland and thenlost the lot. My research covered a great deal of garden history and theory oflandscape design, romantic back-to-nature treatises and so on, some of whichhave been illuminating and informative. There are many schools and move-ments, too many to describe in detail here: arcadian, romantic, picaresque,gardenesque and so on. Behind the florid language most garden design theorycomes down to a single basic series of opposing positions which can besummarised as formal versus informal, design versus free-form, straight linesverses curves, order versus freedom, man-made versus natural. Scotland’s firstgardening manual, John Reid’s 1683 The Scots Gardener, gives a sense of therequirement for order some garden designers feel: ‘I take a survey of the workand when I find several regular and irregular things done on one side of thehouse, and nothing correspondent on the other, I mark the very same on theopposite side, and this I continue to do till two irregularities produce oneuniformity.’ The need to tame wild, savage, frightening nature into order,boundary and domestication seems to be the driving force here. On the otherside are the Rousseau-inspired romantics who see gardens as an extension ofnature itself and abhor the formality and artificiality imposed by man on theperfection of nature. More often than not, fashions and tastes swing back andforth. Very often, those styles vilified for a decade or two are back in vogue againwithin a few years. In Scotland, probably for economic reasons, grand formalgardens were rarely the dominant style, and informal approaches havedominated. Polymath Scot J.C. Loudon (1783–1843) wrote the influentialEncyclopaedia of Gardening (1822), advocating a style which he called ‘garde-nesque’. This is close to what we now consider ‘woodland gardening’: fillingwoodland with exotic plants such as rhododendrons. Many Scottish gardensfrom the last 200 years have fairly closely followed Loudon’s design precepts.The formal versus informal argument reached its peak in the late Victorian erawith the natural/wild faction led by John Ruskin and William Robinson,opposed by formalists such as John Dando Sedding and Reginald Blomfield,who called the Robinson style ‘an absence of design’. Into this pie-throwingcontest arrived the voice of reason, Gertrude Jekyll, who calmly entered the

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hitherto male-dominated world of garden design and was asked to take sides.She immediately saw what a lot of hot air and nonsense was being issued forthand swatted both sides down with a simple, ‘Both are right, both are wrong.’Jekyll’s solution was to have formality nearer the house with rectangular beds,terraces and straight lines, with wilder, more natural gardening further awaywhich would eventually merge sympathetically into the surroundingcountryside. If there is a Scottish gardening style, Jekyll’s aesthetic seems to sumit up rather well.

The evolution of gardening styles over the ages has meant that many greatolder Scottish gardens have been so altered, sometimes several times over, thatlittle or no trace of the original design remains. Unlike France and Italy, wheremany great sixteenth- and seventeenth-century gardens can still be enjoyed,Scotland has virtually no pre-eighteenth-century larger gardens intact.Linlithgow Palace, Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace had extensive, mostlyformal gardens in the European style, but none have survived. DrummondCastle in Perthshire and Pitmedden in Aberdeenshire are perhaps the closest wehave today on the grand scale, but both are re-creations and interpretations.Political events had a profound effect on the creation/destruction and survivalof gardens. Oliver Cromwell’s troops have a lot to answer for: intent onsubduing Scotland, they camped on and laid waste to many significant housesand gardens in the mid seventeenth century, Holyrood Palace being a goodexample. It was 40–50 years later, in a period of relative stability, that WilliamBruce became a key figure in the history of Scottish gardening. For the first time,large houses no longer needed to be fortified, so could be sited with theirgardening potential and views as a priority rather than defensive considerations.Bruce’s masterpieces of Balcaskie in 1668–74 (occasionally open under Scotland’sGardens) and Kinross House in 1685 (recently restored and hopefully accessiblein the future) were designed as houses and gardens as a single planned landscape,with a vista from the front door to the Bass Rock and Loch Leven Castle respec-tively. This evolution of the house set in a wider planned landscape greatly influ-enced Capability Brown, Robert Adam and others who designed and created theeighteenth-century houses and gardens of Britain.

The 1715 and 1745 Jacobite rebellions caused significant changes inownership. Many of those who fought for the losing side – Catholic families inparticular – forfeited titles, lands and funds. Those who lost out included theSeatons at Winton and the earls of Perth at Stobhall, as well as many clan chiefssuch as the MacGregors, McLarens and Stewarts. Some great Scottish dynastiesmanaged to sail though these choppy waters unaffected, while others hadsympathetic relatives hold lands till they were allowed to return. Other familieswho backed the ‘winning team’ were rewarded with favourable land deals andinfluential positions by the ‘Commissioners of the Forfeited Estates’. Thosenewly landed and ennobled went on to build and create some of Scotland’sfinest eighteenth-century houses and gardens, often designed by William andRobert Adam and their followers.

If the eighteenth century was a golden age of great house design, then the

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Victorian era was more of a mixed bag, ranging from the excellent to theridiculous: the Gothic revival led to competitive building decoration withturrets, gargoyles, parapets and frippery, and the leader of the Scottish branch ofthis movement was David Bryce. His best buildings are iconic examples of theirage. The Bank of Scotland on Edinburgh’s Mound, the French Gothic turrets ofFettes College in Edinburgh and Balfour Castle in Orkney are all examples ofBryce at his best. Unfortunately, his style caused an infectious rash of imitators;other Scots architects, many trained in Bryce’s practice, were commissioned to‘improve’ many a fine seventeenth- and eighteenth-century country house.Robert Lorimer, one of Scotland’s finest architects and landscapers, commentedshortly after the end of the Victorian age that ‘so many Scottish houses wereruined by Bryce and others, fifty or sixty years ago’. The Lorimer family’srestoration of Kellie Castle and its gardens was largely inspired by this dislike ofthe Victorian shells and embellishments. These Victorian ‘Disneyesque’châteaux, some ugly, some ridiculous, do still tend to dominate a number ofScotland’s significant gardens. Conservationists have listed most of them, so theycould not be demolished or returned to their former grandeur, even if there werea will to do so.

The Industrial Revolution saw huge profits made by many of Scotland’sbusiness barons, landowners and entrepreneurs through investments in docks,coalmining, iron, railways, shipbuilding, jute and other industries. With theirwealth they purchased or built country houses, and several great Scottishgardens came into being at this time: Wemyss Castle and Hill of Tarvit in Fifeand Geilston near Glasgow are some examples. As the nineteenth century gaveway to the twentieth and Manderston became the ‘swansong of the greatcountry house’, the First World War saw greenhouse heating turned off, gardensgrubbed up to produce food crops and gardeners sent off to fight in the trenches;many never returned. A similar pattern was repeated during the Second WorldWar, with ‘dig for victory’ gardens turned over to growing vegetables. It is aston-ishing how many gardens survived this double destruction/abandonment andwere restored to their former glory. Gradually after the Second World War, itseemed that everyone took to gardening, in suburbs, back gardens and allot-ments, while at the same time, many of Britain’s ‘great’ private gardens weredonated to the National Trust and the National Trust for Scotland and wereopened to all. In the 1970s gardening became popular on television, with PercyThrower its first star, and garden centres sprang up on the outskirts of everytown. Gardening was now Britain’s most popular pastime.

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So What Makes a Good Garden?

This is, of course, not an easy question to answer. It is, as has already been noted,largely a matter of ‘point of view’. Taste is a fickle thing. And tastes seem tochange faster than ever in our media-obsessed age. Gardening styles used to take50 years to evolve; now they come and go in a decade or less, often with a degreeof snobbery involved. I often hear and read that plants such as roses, rhododen-drons and even Oudolf-style grasses and prairie planting are no longer ‘infashion’. Clearly most Scottish gardeners just ignore the style mafia and continueto grow plants which do well and look good. The gardens which consistentlyimpress over long periods of time are usually the ones which are beyond thevagaries of popular taste and the latest styles; these gardens are themselves the‘trendsetters’. Because the owners of such gardens broke the mould, theircreations were not necessarily fêted at the time they were created; often it takeshindsight to appreciate them. Rather than try to relate gardens to currentfashions, it is more fruitful to communicate what the essence of each garden is,its strengths and sometimes its weaknesses. Any good example of a gardeningstyle is worthy of recognition. I have resisted any temptation to give gardens a‘star’ rating, as I think this tends to be divisive. Everyone has his or her own likesand dislikes. There are few gardening styles that I can’t appreciate, though Istruggle to find much enthusiasm for dahlia borders, formal rose gardens ofhybrid-teas, any garden with a variegated Aucuba, 1970s rockeries, solitary bedsof hostas . . . but I’m on the lookout for the best examples of everything, evenmost of those listed above. Threave has a great dahlia border, Tollcross Park hasfantastic hybrid tea roses and Newtonairds Lodge has amazing hosta-dominatedplantings. What became apparent as I journeyed the length and breadth ofScotland is just how good Scotland’s gardens are. Very few were poor and almostevery one was worth visiting; most gardens, large or small, have somethingunusual, singular, special or exceptional. Some gardens are probably really worthseeing for only a few weeks a year, others have longer seasons of interest. I havetherefore tried to advise on the best time of year to visit. Inevitably, some gardenswere in need of more TLC than their often rather elderly owners could manage.In one or two cases the next generation had taken over, inheriting an ancientgardener, often well beyond retirement age, gamely struggling to maintaincontrol. Gardens with a fair few weeds or overgrown corners can be just asenjoyable as those which are manicured with nail scissors; a bit of wildness neverhurt anyone, though I do tend to notice when things are becoming over-shadedby trees. There are some gardens which are, it has to be admitted, out of control,

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overgrown and at, or almost at, the point of no return. I have commented onthis from time to time, purely in the hope that something might be done beforeit is too late. It is useful to assess what gardens and nurseries have to offer in thewidest sense: not just to gardeners and garden lovers, but to ‘dragees’ too. Thismade-up word which I heard being used at an American rhododendronconference, refers to a person who comes along to places or events, because oftheir spouse/partner/parent’s interest, be it golf, vintage motorbikes, football orgarden visiting. Garden and garden centre dragees are often children and manyof Scotland’s garden owners have tried hard to cater for their dragee visitors,offering them alternative entertainment such as shopping, cafés and playparks.For the first edition, my children Jamie and Finn often joined me as I inspectedgardens and they assessed the play parks, animals, mazes, fountains and otherdistractions. For the second edition, they refused point black to visit a singlegarden. I don’t blame them!

Gardens are fickle things. And so are some garden visitors. Out of season,on a rainy day, when you have a hangover, scratchy children, financial worries,sometimes you won’t be in the mood to appreciate any garden, however good.Some gardens are like fireworks, a brief explosion of colour, and then nothingmuch for the rest of the year. Catch these on the right day, and you are inparadise; arrive out of season, and you wonder what the fuss is about. Othergardens are more about setting and views, formal landscaping, buildings, thingsthat don’t change with the seasons so the timing of the visit is less important.Gardens are also ephemeral. It takes only a few months of neglect before naturestarts to reclaim them. Many of Scotland’s best gardens are owned and cared forby elderly gardeners, some of whom have astonishing stamina and fitness fortheir age. One day they won’t be able to prune and weed. And unless they arelucky enough to be able to pass their garden on to someone who will love it asthey did, it may disappear. This pattern has always been the case, and though wemay mourn, we know that somewhere not far away, someone else will decide tocarve their own piece of paradise out of a new plot of land, a barren moorland,an ancient forest. And on it goes.

On my travels I observed two gardening extremes which I have classified as‘gardens as stamp collections’ and ‘gardens as theatre’. The ‘stamp-collector’gardener has lots of rare plants, including all the latest ones on the market. Theplants are all well labelled, and sometimes the labels are larger than the plants.The rarer it is, and often the more insignificant, the better. Such gardens areusually crammed full, with little planning, aesthetic or structure. The ownerneither knows nor cares what is fashionable; what matters is that they have theone and only surviving form of this or that rarity. Their garden appeals to like-minded gardeners. Stamp-collector gardeners can often be obsessive, which candiminish the pleasure they derive from their passion, as they are never satisfied.They can inspire terror in their less knowledgeable visitors who are bombardedwith endless Latin and lengthy expositions. Perhaps they have an NCCPG/PlantHeritage national collection of Aucuba, or Pachysandra or some other genuswhich no one else loves. I’m exaggerating of course, but only slightly; most of us

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know someone who gardens like this. The other extreme is the ‘garden astheatre’ style. Nikolaus Pevsner wrote in 1944 that gardens are ‘Britain’s greatestcontribution to the visual arts’. Perhaps a concept which the vast majority ofgardeners would run a mile from. There is no doubt that many gardens areextremely theatrical, where design and bold statements are key to major struc-tural and planting decisions. Such gardens are often deliberately ‘fashionable’,often built at great expense, planned and sometimes planted by a gardendesigner and/or landscaper. You may find exotic lighting, fountains and follies,colour co-ordinated planting schemes in blue or inevitably white, minimalism,pleached trees, topiary. Plants are chosen for their form and colour and are neverlabelled, as labels are ugly. Such gardens are often divided into rooms withhedges and each path or allée has an object at the end: a building, statue, seat orfocus planting. Design-obsessed gardeners often find it equally hard to takepleasure from their gardens, as there is always some carefully planned plantpartnership or effect which did not work out or failed to wow the last people tosee it. Don’t get me wrong; there is definitely a place for theatrical gardens. SirRoy Strong’s garden at the Laskett in Herefordshire is a fine example, and asStrong describes himself as ‘a frustrated stage designer’, I don’t think he wouldmind being assigned to the ‘gardens as theatre’ movement. Thankfully, fewgardens are as clear-cut as either of the above extremes. In my opinion, whatmakes a really good garden is a balance between careful and individual plantselection and excellent form and structure. There is nothing better thanstumbling across a garden with exquisite design touches and plant combinationswhich you have seldom or never seen before. Most great gardens are ‘great’because they have both elements and because they do one or two things reallywell: large or small, they have that certain magic which comes from a perfectvista or where the form, structure and colour combination just take your breathaway; what Gertrude Jeykll called creating ‘garden pictures’. Scotland is full ofsuperb ‘garden pictures’. Sadly not every day, or even every year: rhododendronsand magnolias can be frosted overnight in spring, leaving mushy greydestruction while in summer wet weather may be great for hydrangeas but manyroses and perennials just go mouldy. There is often an element of luck to beingat the right place at the right time. This is part of the pleasure of visiting gardens;unlike a historic house, a garden will always be different, however many timesyou visit. Even the greatest gardens can be miserable in wind and rain; thoughI did visit plenty of them in downpours in the summers of 2007, 2008 and 2012

and still managed to enjoy them. The gardens which most excite me are notalways the obvious ones; those untouchable classics that everyone has heard of.Their fame precedes them, and at times the weight of expectation just cannotdeliver that wow factor that you were perhaps expecting. In contrast, I walkedinto some of the gardens in this book knowing little or nothing about them andcame away delighted. I realise that by waxing lyrical about them, I’m raisingyour expectations, but I hope that when you discover them, you’ll be purringwith pleasure as I was. Many private gardens are a particular pleasure to visitbecause you can meet and be guided by the owners and creators. Their enthu-

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siasm makes the visit doubly interesting and informative. You can’t do that atmuseum gardens whose creators are long dead and which are now steered bycommittee. Peter King, author/editor of The Good Gardens Guide, wrote a fineessay on the difficulties of judging gardens, and much of what he says is verypertinent: ‘I would . . . suggest that all good gardens have “style”: a style individ-ually formulated by its creator, or successive creators, and given a shape underhis or her direction. It is a process which in other people’s eyes may succeed orfail, but never mind; if they have consulted the genius of the place, then the stylethey aim for will show through.’ Author of The Authentic Garden, AmericanClaire E. Sawyers, confirms the importance of a sense of place: ‘to discover andpreserve what is special about your site, its genius loci. This means working withwhat you’ve been given, not struggling against it’. She goes on to explain howgood gardens should ‘involve the visitor’ and decries what she calls ‘garden porn’or gardens designed to shock or provoke.

Many gardeners struggle to comprehend how avant garde garden design andlandscape architecture can be deemed gardening at all when plants are obviouslysuch a secondary consideration and sometimes barely feature at all. This wasbrought home to me at the festival of garden design a few years ago at Weston-birt in Gloucestershire which featured plots which were attention-grabbing,often provocative, but were really nothing more than gallery installations whichhappened to have been created outside. I failed to see much evidence ofgardening at all. Some strands of current garden design raise a furious response.Author and garden designer Noel Kingsbury expresses his frustration at what heviews are contemporary gardening trends: ‘I think I speak for a lot of peoplewho are fed up with modernism and minimalism. We want ornamentation,detail, complexity, and BEAUTY!’ (writing in response to the ThinkinGardenswebsite). This brings home the polarised views which can exist when trying toevaluate good gardens and gardening. I think I’m a gardening pluralist and hopethat I’m receptive to all styles and eras of gardening, and I’m often very stimu-lated by daring and contemporary garden design. In this book I am advocatinga very broad-minded view of what gardening can be. In Scotland we have beenlucky enough to have two iconic and ground-breaking twentieth-century gardencreators in the late Ian Hamilton Finlay and Charles Jencks – both artists/archi-tects who have pushed the boundaries of what gardens and gardening might becapable of into hitherto largely uncharted territory. Their creations areconsidered amongst the world’s most important gardens of the last 100 years.Whether these two pathfinders turn out to be the leaders of the future directionof gardening or an interesting sideshow, only time will tell. But we should beproud that they are part of Scotland’s amazing gardening heritage.

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Scottish Gardening ‘Style’ and What Makes a ‘Scottish Garden’

I don’t think there is a very strong argument for the existence of a school or styleof Scottish gardening as such, but Scottish history, geography, geology andclimate have all contributed to moulding the gardens we have. The one factorwhich makes Scottish gardens unique is the striking landscape in which manyof them are set. Scottish gardens are seldom flat, and many have stunning coastalor mountain backdrops or ‘borrowed’ landscapes. Garden historian ChristopherDingwall draws attention to this in (so far unpublished) essays under the banner,‘Landscaping of Scotland’: ‘While their English counterparts were struggling tocreate picturesque and sublime landscapes with the help of artificial rocks andcascades, many Scots gardeners and landowners simply took advantage of thenatural features to be found in the landscape which surrounded them.’ Thenatural settings of Culzean, Inverewe, Arduaine, Floors Castle and many otherScottish gardens are as fine as anywhere in the world. In the following pages Iattempt to summarise some of the other key ingredients, features and motifswhich have come to define what makes a Scottish garden.

Trees

We take it for granted these days that Scotland is well covered with trees, butthis was far from the case 500 years ago. The Middle Ages saw most of Scotlanddeforested for firewood and building, with virtually no replanting. Monarchsand their governments passed legislation to protect trees and encourage refor-estation, but this was not enforced. Virtually all the native forest disappearedand contemporary travellers commented on the desolate treeless landscape. Thereversal of fortune began in the seventeenth century, when a new law was passed,which this time was successful in forcing landowners and tenants to plant trees.John Evelyn, author of one of the first books on forestry, published in 1678,inspired his friend the earl of Tweeddale to plant trees on a large scale at hisestates at Yester, near Haddington. Architect William Bruce used trees in hisdesigns for Hopetoun House and Kinross House in the late seventeenth andearly eighteenth centuries, and Daniel Defoe commented on the scale of tree-planting he encountered on his grand tour of Scotland between 1724 and 1727.By now it was fashionable for great houses to have wooded parkland, andcompetitiveness between owners led to planting on an ever larger scale. Thedukes of Argyll and Atholl were the pioneers of grand-scale planting and one

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extraordinary incident in 1685 saw the Murrays celebrate their victory over theCampbells by the looting of 34,000 trees, ripped up from Inveraray Castle andreplanted at Blair Atholl over 100 miles away. The eighteenth century was theage of parkland landscaping and the heyday of ‘Capability’ Brown andHumphry Repton. By then, tree-planting and the creation of woods andparkland on the grand scale was common all over the UK. The dukes of Athollplanted trees on a hitherto unmatched scale; it has been calculated that thesecond, third and fourth dukes planted over 21 million trees on 15,000 acres ofground. Other estates with substantial tree-planting during this period includeDrumlanrig, Monymusk, Duff House, Tyninghame, Drummond Castle,Inveraray and Glamis. By 1828 Sir Henry Steuart was able to describe Scotlandas a ‘Planting Nation’ or to speak with more correctness, a ‘Nation of Planters’.Many of these eighteenth- and nineteenth-century woodlands still exist, withparticularly fine beech, oaks, lime, sycamore and larch. The elms, sadly, havemostly gone due to Dutch Elm disease, though Aberdeenshire has managed tohold onto a good many, at least till recently. A new organisation, The NationalTree Collections of Scotland (www.ntcs.org.uk) was founded in 2011. Startingwith seven sites with several more added, the organisation’s website explains therationale:

Scotland has some of the world’s finest tree collections. Their diversityreflects the role many individual landowners have played over thecenturies, collecting and planting specimen trees from around the globe.The best of Scotland’s specimen tree collections have been broughttogether as the National Tree Collections of Scotland, to increase publicawareness of and access to these collections, and to help protect thisaspect of our national heritage for future generations . . . In a single,multi-site national arboretum . . . overseen by . . . experts drawn fromForestry Commission Scotland, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh,the Royal Scottish Forestry Society and the National Trust for Scotland.

Plant hunters in North America: conifers and the pinetum

It was not surprising that the already enthusiastic tree-planting Scottish land-owning classes fell over themselves to grow the latest conifer introductions fromNorth America brought back by Scottish plant hunters such as ArchibaldMenzies, David Douglas, William Murray and William Drummond (Araucaria,the monkey puzzle, Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, Noble fir, Grand fir, Western redcedar, Lawson’s cypress etc). These fast-growing conifers changed the Scottishlandscape for good. Several Scottish landowners clubbed together in 1849 tofinance expeditions to bring back further seed from the Americas. The 1854 andsubsequent introductions of giant redwoods from California account for thenumber of these huge trees found all over Scotland from Castle Kennedy andBenmore in the south and west to the Tay valley in the east. Pinetums were

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established to show off these collections of giants on a grand scale at gardens inPerthshire and Angus such as Glamis, Scone Palace, Blair Castle, the Hermitageand Murthly Castle as well as at Balmoral on Deeside, Ardkinglas in Argyll andDawyck in the Borders. Many of Scotland’s now tallest trees were planted at thistime and form the present-day backdrop to many of the finest gardens and plantcollections.

Plant hunters in Asia and the Scottish woodland gardens

The period from the 1840s onwards saw plant hunters turn towards the east,particularly to China and the Himalayas, now accessible to outsiders for the firsttime. Scotsman Robert Fortune arrived in China as a plant collector in 1843,returning in 1851 when he famously broke the Chinese monopoly on tea bytaking thousands of Camellia plants to India. Joseph Hooker was fundedthrough his father at Glasgow Botanic Garden to explore Sikkim and other partsof northern India in the 1850s. He brought back large quantities of seed, partic-ularly rhododendrons, and the seedlings raised were planted in many Scottishgardens such as Castle Kennedy, Kilmory and Stonefield, where some of themcan still be seen. Equally significant were the hundreds of hybrids bred from thenewly introduced rhododendron species which, planted with their parents,began to form part of the William Robinson-inspired woodland gardens fromthe late Victorian era onwards. George Forrest, trained at the Royal BotanicGarden, Edinburgh was sent on his first collecting foray to China in 1904, thefirst of seven collecting expeditions to Yunnan, on which he amassed over 31,000

herbarium specimens and introduced several hundred significant garden plantsvia copious quantities of seed. Not only numerous rhododendrons were intro-duced, but also Primula, Meconopsis, Magnolia, Pieris, maples, Sorbus, Berberisand other garden plants which we now take for granted. Forest’s last expeditionbetween 1930 and 1932 had several Scottish sponsors, including K. McDougalfrom Logan, J. Horlick from Gigha, D. MacEwen from Corsock, E.H.M. Coxfrom Glendoick, the Rentons from Branklyn, F. Balfour from Dawyck and J.Stirling Maxwell from Pollok – a veritable roll-call of great Scottish rhodo-dendron gardens. These sponsors received more seed than they could growthemselves, so in turn they sent some of it to their friends and relatives: to theMacKenzies at Inverewe, the Duchess of Montrose at Brodick, the Campbells atCrarae, Inveraray and Arduaine, to the Christies at Blackhills and Sir JohnNoble at Ardkinglas. In this way almost all of the great Scottish woodlandgardens had access to wild-origin material, and most of them had acres of spaceto plant the resultant seedlings in. There were numerous other importantcollectors who enriched Scottish gardens: Ernest Wilson, Reginald Farrer andEuan (E.H.M.) Cox, Frank Kingdon Ward, Joseph Rock and Frank Ludlow andGeorge Sherriff all contributed to the steady stream of new introductions ofrhododendron and other plant species from all over the China-Himalayanregion. Scot George Sherriff and his wife Betty planted their fine garden at

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Ascreavie and shared wild collected seeds with many Scottish gardeners, partic-ularly those keen on alpines such as the Rentons at Branklyn, nurserymen JackDrake and Alec Duguid, Bobby Masterton at Cluny, the Knox Findlays atKeillour and Euan Cox at Glendoick. Of all the plants brought back, none hadmore impact on Scotland’s landscape than the hundreds of species of rhodo-dendron, which in many ways became the defining plant of Scottish gardens.My family, the Coxes, founded the Glendoick nursery in 1953, which ever sincehas been the main source of rhododendrons for Scottish gardens. Plant huntersreturned to the China-Himalayan region in the 1980s and many important newplants have been introduced to Scottish gardens in the years since. VitaSackville-West may have despised rhododendrons: ‘they are like fat stockbrokerswho we do not want to dinner’, but Scotland was not Sissinghurst and clearlyfew Scots agreed with her. The list of significant rhododendron-dominatedScottish woodland gardens is long. Some of the best include Blackhills,Arduaine, Crarae, Benmore, Glenarn, Inverewe, Glendoick and Corsock. Inrecent years there have been a significant number of contemporary Scottishplant hunters, from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, the Scottish RockGarden Club as well as owners of nurseries such as Ron McBeath, the Rankinsfrom Kevock, Ian Christie, Michael Wickenden, Jens Nielsen, myself and myfather Peter Cox with Peter Hutchison, all of whom have scoured the globe fornew plants, many of which are proving to be fine garden subjects.

Alpines and rock gardening

The same plant hunters who brought back so many rhododendrons also intro-duced quantities of alpine plants from high mountain areas of Asia. Scotland’sown mountains and cliffs contain a fine range of alpine plants. Some of theseare suitable as garden plants; others, such as Loiseleuria procumbens, arechallenging to cultivate at low altitudes. Alpines from other countries are oftenmore adaptable to lowland Scotland, where our cool summers suit their needs.The nineteenth- and twentieth-century collectors already mentioned were alsoresponsible for the introduction of huge numbers of alpine plants from Asia toadd to those coming in from Greece, Turkey, South Africa and South America.Plant hunter and writer Reginald Farrer’s pioneering The English Rock Garden,published just before the First World War, inspired several significant Scottishrock gardens. Some of the many notable collectors of alpine plants assembled inthe period either side of the Second World War included the Sherriffs atAscreavie, the Knox Findlays at Keillour, the Rentons at Branklyn, Jack Drakeat Inshriach, Alec Duiguid at Edrom, Bobby Masterton at Cluny and the Leith-Hays at Leith Hall. Their gardens boasted dwarf rhododendrons, primulas,meconopsis, lilies, Nomocharis, saxifrage, Daphne and many other genera. Thelargest rock garden, at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was constructed in1908 and rebuilt in 1914 after Farrer criticised it for its artificiality. The growingpopularity of alpine plants lead to the formation of the Scottish Rock Garden

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Club in 1933. Scotland has long boasted a significant number of excellent alpinespecialist nurseries including Edrom Nurseries, Jack Drake/Inshriach, IanChristie, Kevock Garden Plants, Lamberton (now closed) and Ardfearn.

Walled gardens

What is it that makes walled gardens so fascinating and irresistible? Perhaps it’sthe mystery of what lies behind those high walls . . . if only we can find the wayin. Or perhaps it’s the shelter and ‘apartness’ to be found inside, away from noiseof traffic, wind, other people . . . An enormous number of Scotland’s finestgardens are to be found within high walls. Enclosed gardens are described by SirRobert Lorimer as ‘a sort of sanctuary’, a ‘chamber roofed by heaven’. They findtheir origins in castle gardens – Edzell for example – and monastery gardensenclosed by a courtyard or cloisters. It does not take much imagination to workout why walled gardens are so important to Scotland. The simple answer is theclimate. We tend to forget these days just how cold winters were in theeighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Without the protection of walls, oftenheated by coal fires and boilers, it would not have been possible to grow such awide range of ornamental and food plants. Walled gardens were built primarilyto allow great houses to have a high degree of self-sufficiency. Great skills incultivation were developed and important breakthroughs in plant breeding weremade in them. They provide protection from wind, particularly important forseaside gardens such as those at Inverewe and Dunbeath. The walls and gateskeep out rabbits and deer and undoubtedly also prevented appropriation of theproduce by locals. The microclimates provided by the walls allowed trained fruitto be grown successfully and the south-facing wall was usually the site of one ormore lean-to greenhouses or conservatories, used to protect tender plants, raiseexotic fruit and flowers and to force plants into bloom for the house in winterand early spring. Many of Scotland’s walled gardens were built on a prodigiousscale. Some of the largest I found on my travels were Hopetoun (over 20 acres),Brechin Castle (13 acres), Blair Castle Hercules Garden (9 acres), Amisfield (7acres) and Wemyss Castle (6 acres). In contrast, some of the finest walledgardens are small: Elizabeth MacGregor’s at Ellenbank and Ann Fraser’s atShepherd House are bijou perfection. Some, like Mertoun and Knockdolian, arebuilt on top of a hill, while others such as Blairquhan have a hollow in themiddle, sloping up at both ends, which allows for spectacular vistas. Cambo’swalled garden has a burn running through it, while Hercules’ garden at BlairCastle boasts large ponds. Most are square or rectangular; exceptions includeNetherbyres (elliptical), Carolside (oval), Kinlochlaich House (hexagonal),Inverewe (curved) and Brechin (irregular). Several, such as Wemyss and Novar,are double or even triple gardens. Many walled gardens have only three walls,with the lowest point left open to allow frost to drain out. Glendoick’s is anexample of this. Most Scottish walled gardens are sited some distance from thehouse they belong to, and several present-day owners have told me how much

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they regret this, as they can’t just nip out to get some herbs or do a bit ofweeding. The separation of house and garden was something that particularlyaggrieved Sir Walter Scott, quoted in the Quarterly Review, vol. 37: ‘The garden. . . [is] by a strange and sweeping sentence of exile . . . sequestered in somedistant corner where it may be best concealed from the eye to which it has beenrendered a nuisance, the modern garden resembles nothing so much as a convictin his gaol apparel, banished, by his every appearance from all decent society.’So why were walled gardens constructed far from the house? There are severaltheories. The use of ‘night soil’ (human waste) to grow vegetables and fruit madesome kitchen gardens smell unpleasant. Gardeners were often housed in cottagesand bothies in the garden walls and it was considered desirable to have labourers’accommodation some distance from the house. And the walled garden’s cuttingand flower beds were thought ideally to be ‘a short stroll distant’, a suitable desti-nation for the ladies to take a turn to after lunch. Walter Scott’s own three-partwalled garden at Abbotsford was built to demonstrate how he thought it shouldbe done, and there are many fine examples of walled gardens right next to thedwelling they belong to, often with the house or castle forming one of the wallsor boundaries. Some of the best examples include Earlshall Castle and Kellie inFife (both Lorimer designs), Pitmuies, Crathes and Cawdor. At Cally, Nether-byres, Tyninghame and Carnell, the present owners have built new homes orextended old bothies and apple stores so they can live in or alongside theirwalled gardens. Most walled gardens suffered greatly during both world wars,when most of the ornamentals were ripped up and replaced with food crops aspart of ‘dig for victory’. Needless to say, many gardeners never returned home;the First World War saw many gardens lose all their staff in the futility of theWestern Front. Post-1945, many gardens were returned to their former glory, butothers were abandoned, grassed over, used for market gardens or, perhaps worstof all, used for growing Christmas trees. Thankfully, walled gardens seem to beenjoying a renaissance and many old gardens are finding new uses. Some of thebest recent restorations include Drum’s rose garden on Deeside, Dunbeath’scomplex series of garden rooms and the garden architecture at Wormistoun inFife. Floors Castle’s contains a garden centre as well as excellent herbaceousborders, fruit and vegetables. Woodside Walled Garden, Smeaton and QuercusGarden Plants use walled gardens as nurseries while Redhall in Edinburgh isused to help people recovering from mental illness. There are few things moredepressing than abandoned walled gardens. There is almost always somepotential good use for any unloved walled garden and I’m tempted to proposethat the Scottish Government should consider defining a new crime of ‘owninga walled garden without due stewardship’. Recent walled garden restorationsinclude Amisfield (Haddington) and Shambellie (Dumfries), Gordon Castleand, just beginning, Penicuik House. I can’t help thinking that some of the otherabandoned ones could and should be used for allotments (there is usuallydemand for these). The buildings in and around walled gardens are equallyvaried and often fascinating: greenhouses in all shapes and sizes, often with theremains of their elaborate heating systems, pavilions, summerhouses, doocots,

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apple stores (the one at Earlshall has Lorimer stone monkeys on top), and thepièce de résistance, the Pineapple at Dunmore.

Environmental or land art

In the last 30 years, Scotland has become what is probably the world’s leadingcentre of land or environmental art. Some may argue that this has little to dowith gardening, but in truth, the idea of shaping lakes, creating buildings andplacing sculpture and inscriptions in the landscape goes back millennia and canbe found across continents: Japanese and Chinese mountain and templegardens, ancient British sites such as the Ring of Brodgar in Orkney andCallanish in Lewis, the construction of ‘eye-catchers’ in classical and renaissanceItalian gardens and the sculpting of the landscape by William Kent andCapability Brown in England. Ian Hamilton Finlay’s garden at Little Sparta (seep. 446) and the Garden of Cosmic Speculation at Portrack (see p. 376) are thetwo best-known modern-day Scottish examples. The largest concentration ofsites is in south-west Scotland, from Lanarkshire to Dumfries and Galloway. AtCairnsmore nature reserve near Gatehouse of Fleet are a series of five sculpturesby Matt Baker paired with poems by Mary Smith. Artist Andy Goldsworthy hasbuilt cairns and other sculptures in sites around Scotland, the best known ofwhich are the Striding Arches at Cairnhead (see p. 355). Glenkiln Estate (see p.381) is another wild landscape around a reservoir in the Dumfries hills, withsculptures by Epstein, Moore and others. Edinburgh boasts two Charles Jenckslandforms at the Gallery of Modern Art (see p. 443) and Jupiter Artland (see p.439). Other Jencks projects include open cast mines or quarries in Fife (ScottishWorld Project, see p. 238) and Crawick (see p. 364) in Dumfries, where spoil hasbeen turned into artificial mounds. The Gretna Landmark by the Scottishborder is a Jencks–Cecil Balmond sculpture collaboration. Charles Jencksdescribes his art as ‘The Universe in the Landscape’.

Scottish plant breeding

Scotland has a long history of significant plant breeding which probably datesback to the selection of apple varieties and other fruit in monastic gardens in theMiddle Ages. Roses were bred by Dickson and Brown in the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries and James Cocker and Sons in the twentieth. Despite theirNorth American origins, the world centre of Penstemon breeding from 1870 till1968 was at the firm of John Forbes of Hawick in the Borders, while rhododen-drons were hybridised by Cunningham’s nursery in Victorian times. A hugerange of dwarf rhododendrons and evergreen azaleas (named after birds andmammals) was bred by my family at Glendoick from 1960 onwards. Breeders ofalpine plants include James Grieve (of apple fame), William Buchanan, JackDrake and more recently Ian Christie and Ian MacNaughton. The Scottish

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Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie is world-renowned for the breeding andselection of many varieties of raspberry and blackcurrant, as well as the tayberry.An important contemporary player is Orkney farmer Alan Bremner, who hasbeen breeding hardy geraniums for the last 20 years. My 2012 book Fruit andVegetables for Scotland covers Scotland’s fruit and vegetable breeders in somedetail, including potato pioneers such as Archibald Findlay from Auchter-muchty.

Scottish wild flowers and plants

Due to Britain’s island geography and intense glaciation during the last Ice Age,Scotland has a relatively impoverished native flora and very few endemic plants(those which are found only in Scotland). Scotland’s climate during the last iceage is thought to have been comparable to that of Greenland today, with onlytrue arctic vegetation surviving. As the climate warmed up again, trees andconifers such as birch and juniper were able to move north and Arctic plantssuch as Saxifraga oppositifolia, Gentiana nivalis and Loiseleuria procumbensbecame confined to mountain tops such as Ben Lawers and the peaks of theAngus glens, where sharp-eyed walkers can still enjoy them. Scotland does havea fine range of wild flowers, and several spectacular plants, not all of them native,dominate the landscape at certain times of year. While some such as gorse,broom and heather are indigenous to Scottish, many now wild plants such asRhododendron ponticum were introduced from elsewhere. Scotland’s relativelyshort list of native trees includes Scots pine, yew, rowan, willow, alder, hazel andoak. The Romans probably introduced beech and chestnut to the UK, while thelast three centuries have seen the introduction of many other trees now verymuch part of the landscape. Snowdrops (Galanthus) are certainly one ofScotland’s most conspicuous wildflowers, very much at home in Scotland,multiplying happily without any human intervention, and yet most authoritiesagree that they are not British natives. Late February and early March is the peakof snowdrop flowering (see p. 499 for the pick of snowdrop gardens). As winterturns to spring, primroses (Primula vulgaris) start to flower all over Scotland inMarch, April and May, with their pale yellow flowers, historically associatedwith Easter. Some of the best displays I have seen lie along the A816 from Obanto Lochgilphead and on Skye. May brings on one the finest wildflower sights inScotland when the bluebell woods come into flower. The third week of May isusually the peak, but an early spring can make them earlier and they run intoJune in the far north. There are great examples all over Scotland. Some of thebest include Castramon Wood, near Gatehouse of Fleet, Yellowcraig Wood nearStirling, Glen Nant, Argyll, Craigvinean Forest near Dunkeld and DarrochWood, Blairgowrie, as well as many of the oak woods on Loch Lomondside.Wild garlic (Allium ursinum), pungent as you walk through it, produces itswhite flowers at the same time as the bluebells and they often grow together. Thewoods around Jura House contain what may be Scotland’s most impressive wild

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garlic carpets. The warming of the climate over recent years means that gorse(Ulex europaeus) can open some of its bright yellow flowers almost all winter, butthe peak is in spring, usually in mid May, when dry hillsides turn bright yellow.Some of the best places to see it include along the A90 from the Forth Bridge toPerth, along the East Lothian coast, in parts of Dumfries and Galloway andaround Oban in Argyll. Broom joins in a little later in May. Rhododendronponticum flowers from late May to late June and occurs in quantity whererainfall is highest, on the west side of the country. Some of the finest displaysinclude those in Mull, around Loch Fyne, Loch Awe and further north inWester Ross around Kishorn. It was introduced from Spain and Portugal in theeighteenth century and was widely planted for shelter and game cover. In highrainfall areas (so not generally in eastern Scotland) it is able to seed and spreadwith suckers to form a dense carpet where few other plants can thrive. Foresterscurse it and the Scottish Executive are in the process of banning its planting, abit late in the day, as the plant is seldom grown commercially anymore. It isimportant to stress that of all the 900 species of rhododendron and azalea, R.ponticum is normally the only one to be invasive in this way. The others staywhere they are put. Fossil records indicate that R. ponticum grew in Britainbefore the last Ice Age. Heather is perhaps Scotland’s most famous wild flower,the finest moorlands tend to be on the drier east coast slopes of the Angus glensand Grampians. These carpets of purple in late summer are ling – Callunavulgaris – often accompanied by delicious blaeberries (Vaccinium myrtillus). Theother wild heather species, Erica cinerea and E. tetralix, are found on cliffs andboggy ground respectively. Many of the richest wildflower habitats in Scotlandare coastal. Clifftops are often particularly rich, and reserves around the coast,famous for their seabirds, are also rich in a wide range of wildflowers. St Abb’sHead near Berwick and Handa Island in Sutherland are two good examples, asis the limestone-dominated island of Lismore north of Oban. Machair is aparticular west-coast habitat where a lime-rich sand is covered with grass,sometimes fertilised with seaweed for grazing. This sharp-draining sand is aperfect habitat for many wild flowers including vetch, trefoil and ox-eye daisy,providing a spectacular summer display. Calgary Bay on Mull, and the islandsof Coll, Tiree and Islay, as well as parts of the peninsula of Ardnamurchan, havegood examples of machair.

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The ‘Existential Gardener’:What Makes a Gardener Garden?

What makes people devote so much hard work and money to the cause of abeautiful garden? Many gardeners tend their acres well into old age; and when Ienquire if there is anyone else to take on the burden, the answer is often ‘no’.Their children have perhaps long seen the absurdity of their parents’ gardeningobsessions and determined not to be caught in the same trap. In many cases, thegarden will no longer exist after they have gone. The motivation for gardeningoften seems to me to be the process or task itself, which brings to mind AlbertCamus’ definition of existentialism in Le Mythe de Sisyphe (‘The Myth ofSisyphus’) in which he describes Sisyphus’ endless task of pushing a heavy rockup a hill only to see it roll back down again as soon as he nears the top. ‘Thestruggle itself is enough to fill a man’s heart.’ And Camus considers that this mayindeed be a form of ‘true happiness’. Many people love to work in the outdoors,they love the contact with the soil, the pleasure of looking out onto a beautifulgarden. But even with all these other motivations, I’m convinced there is anexistential side, for almost all gardeners. Building a house or restoring a car, orwalking from Land’s End to John o’ Groats are long and laborious tasks. But allthese have a beginning and end, and then you can relax. Gardening is not likethis: as all gardeners know, as soon as you have ‘finished’, your plants grow andcrowd one another, pests and diseases strike, greenfly, blackspot, mildew, rain,storms, drought, you mow the grass, the grass gets longer again, weeds growwhere you’ve just weeded . . . and gardeners just push that stone up that hill,over and over again. The best we can do is have the occasional rest, whileadmirers come to praise the shape of our rock, the pose in which we push it andthe perfectly balanced route or rut we have worn down the hillside. It is simul-taneously glorious and futile.

When does the gardening bug strike? It often appears to relate to ‘nurture’.Caring for something to make it grow. Usually but not always, a hitherto mildaffection for the garden increases when children reach a certain stage. For some,it might be when they go off to primary school, and don’t need constantattention. For others it might be when they pack off their offspring to boardingschool, university or work, leaving a hole in a parent’s life for something elsewhich needs to be nurtured. This time they can choose something which doesnot answer back, grow distant or turn into a teenager. Gardeners forgive plantswhich do not perform, assuming that either they did something wrong or theclimate and soil are to blame. It’s not the same trauma we go through wonderingif we are doing a good job as parents. When children stop draining our income

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and start to earn some of their own . . . we decide to spend some of the moneythat this frees up on plants and gardening.

Is it possible to say what makes a great gardener? Is this really not the samequestion that I’ve just been trying to answer when evaluating a good garden? I’mnot sure that it is. Most great gardeners are enlightened dictators with hugeamounts of energy and a single-minded vision, often ignoring advice fromothers. Sometimes they fail; the clever ones take stock, remove the failures andmove on. It is the daring, risk-taking attitude and the vision to see whatsomething will look like in years to come that can make a great gardener. Thisis why I am wary of gardening by committee. When committees run gardens,everyone has a say. ‘You can’t do this, that tree was planted by the earl ofsomewhere . . . you can’t do that, we have always had rose beds there . . .’ Thisresulting lack of decisiveness all too often causes committee-run gardens to fallinto a gradual but terminal decline through lack of innovation. No one isprepared to get out the chainsaw and make the bold decisions. You can’t picklea garden in vinegar and preserve it; a garden is a process not an object, a dynamicentity, the ultimate ‘time-based art’ which can grow and deteriorate at equalspeed. All good gardens thrive on evolution and change. A great expert on thissubject, and one of Britain’s greatest ever gardeners, Graham Stewart Thomas,wrote at length about this issue; he found it reared its head again and again inhis work as gardens director of the (English) National Trust: ‘We have learnt thatcommittees are unsatisfactory for running gardens; all great gardens have beenmade by an individual or a succession of individuals. The mere fact that acommittee is formed so that there shall be majority agreement, carries with itobvious dangers.’ (Graham Stewart Thomas, Gardens of the National Trust)Every great garden evolves, decade on decade; momentous decisions have to bemade from time to time: to cut down woods or overgrown avenues of trees, toknock down walls, to get rid of tired old sections, to fill in or dig ponds, to giveup growing roses. Great gardeners take risks. Committees are risk-averse. It can’tbe helped. Which brings us on to the issue of garden conservation.

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The Conservation andPreservation of Scotland’s Gardens

Some of Scotland’s gardens and planned landscapes have been tended bymembers of the same family for hundreds of years. Generations have keptadding, changing, reviving and improving them. But most great gardens are atrisk of disappearing when their creator moves on. The National Trust forScotland has conserved and preserved many great gardens of course, but itcannot save them all. Other gardens are cut adrift from their funders: Dundee,St Andrews and Cruickshank botanic gardens are no longer required by theiruniversities for research or teaching so their lack of financial security is anongoing concern. When significant gardens are sold, it is pure chance whetherthe new owners will have the interest or means to maintain or improve a garden,so more often than not they slip quietly off the radar and disappear. A woodlandgarden may be able to fend for itself for a few years, but a formal or walledgarden is almost defenceless: nature will reclaim these in a matter of months.However, even after years of neglect, old gardens can be brought back to lifewhen there is a will, as many were after the world wars. Scotland’s gardeninghistory is intrinsically bound up with land ownership and social class. Gardensfor pleasure rather than for growing food were until relatively recently almostentirely the preserve of the aristocracy and landowning classes. Such pleasuregardens were large-scale, high-maintenance and labour intensive. Most ofScotland’s major landowners have or had significant gardens. Scotland is acountry where the concentration of ownership of land in so few hands has longbeen controversial. Andy Wightman’s illuminating book Who Owns Scotland?details the feudal background to Scotland’s land tenure and also illustrates howthe landed families have managed to hang onto their lands through a combi-nation of strategic marriages and complex, often secretive financial arrange-ments. Much of Scotland’s land is held by around 1,500 estates, varying in sizefrom 5,000 to 260,000 acres. Many have been held by families for generations,while the ownership of some estates is hidden behind trusts which take a bit ofwork to unravel. One or two asked me not to reveal the name of thegarden/estate owners, which I have respected with some reluctance. As I was,however, able to find out who owned all of them with a quick Google search,such secrecy seemed out of date and pointless. Indeed, it has persuaded me thattransparency of land ownership in Scotland should be made a legal requirementon public record and freely available on the internet, as it is in almost all otherEuropean countries. It is impossible to research a book such as this withoutnoticing Scotland’s powerhouse landowning dynasties: the dukes of Atholl,

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Argyll, Sutherland, Buccleuch and the marquises of Bute are some of the mostsignificant examples. These estates alone account for almost 600,000 acres ofScotland (whose total land area is 19 million acres) and the wealth these familieshave accumulated has allowed them to garden on a huge scale. By comparison,the National Trust for Scotland owns 175,000 acres (1995). These landed families(mostly owned via trusts) still maintain some of Scotland’s finest castles, gardensand landscapes on a significant and impressive scale. It must be borne in mindthat the stewardship of many of the great gardens of Scotland for generationafter generation is carried on for motives which are seldom for financial gain,and we should acknowledge the efforts and foresight of some of Scotland’s majorlandowners. There are, however, persuasive arguments for further land reform inScotland as there are many legal and feudal anachronisms which have no placein a democracy in the twenty-first century. It is heartening to watch the progressof recent community buyouts of Eigg, Gigha and Assynt, all of which sufferedpreviously under the ownership of sometimes absent, careless, incompetent orbankrupt owners. Some of Scotland’s best gardens are owned and looked afterby people who inherited or bought them, often unaware what they were lettingthemselves in for. I have met many such slightly shell-shocked ownersembarking on a steep learning curve, particularly those who had sometimesunwittingly managed to ‘marry’ a great garden when they walked up the aisle.Some rise to the challenge while others don’t, usually due to financial constraintsor lack of interest. Many once great Scottish gardens have been lost in this wayor are in terminal decline or no longer open to the public. It has been relativelyeasy to assess the loss of gardens by comparing the garden entries in this bookwith an earlier guide, Scotland’s Gardens, edited by Allan Little and published in1981. As an example, over 60 per cent of the gardens listed in the South-EastScotland section of that book are not in this one 30+ years later. I wonder whatremains of Addistoun, Bridgelands, Chiefswood, Cleuchhead, Craling Hall,Eden House, Elvingston, Glenburn House, Hawthornden Castle, The Holmes,Houndwood House . . . I’m sure that some of these are still good gardens, nolonger open or accessible by the public. Some might be in such a condition thatthey could be rescued and brought back to life, should a new owner wish to doso. But many will have gone for good. In assessing the extent of Scotland’sgarden heritage we now have a valuable resource available to us in HistoricScotland’s ‘Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes’. This is a detailedsurvey, now available at www.historic-scotland.gov.uk. This survey may lead tolegislation for greater statutory protection of listed landscapes from inappro-priate development, but there seems little chance that significant funds will bemade available to preserve the gardens themselves. Gardens are not frozen intime but evolve constantly. There is a tendency to assume that garden restorationis a good idea, but this is a complex and often contentious issue. Who decideswhether an original garden design is really worth re-creating? There aresometimes good reasons that gardens have disappeared, whether for financial oraesthetic considerations. If we decide to restore a garden, then how do we decideto which period? A historic garden is a process, not a snapshot, and this often

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presents interesting challenges. Falkland Palace is a particularly knotty example.This NTS Fife property is a Victorian restoration of a sixteenth-century palacewhich had been abandoned for almost 200 years and had no remaining gardens.Falkland Palace now has a mixture of Victorian-style shrubbery, a Percy Canepost-war design and some National Trust committee gardening. Many agree thisgarden is not very satisfactory, but it is almost impossible to reach a consensuson what type of garden should be restored or created here. Personally, I thinkthe Cane design should go, but many others feel equally strongly that it shouldbe preserved. I leave the last word on this subject to one Britain’s most eruditegardeners, Sir Roy Strong, who I heard speak in 2008 on the subject of gardenconservation and his own garden at The Lasket, ending his talk with a rallyingcry: ‘My mandate is: if it is boring, old fashioned, overgrown, demolish it, rip itout, start again. Because that is what gardening is about . . . it is about startingagain and it is about change and it is about embracing change. It is not aboutmaking static shrines.’

The National Trust for Scotland

The National Trust and National Trust for Scotland have saved many of Britain’sgreatest gardens from certain decline and probable destruction. But donating agarden in this way is not without its trials, particularly if you give it away whileyou are still alive, sentient and living next door, as Edmund Wright found atArduaine (see p. 265). Creator of Sissinghurst Vita Sackville-West put it bluntly:‘Never. Never, never. Not that hard metal plaque at my door. Nigel can do whathe likes after I am dead, but as long as I live, no Nat Trust or any other foreignbody shall have my darling.’ Sissinghurst was eventually given to the NationalTrust in 1967, five years after her death. It is impossible to over-estimate howimportant the two Trust organisations have been to the conservation of Britishgardens. Gardens in private hands seldom last for more than two or three gener-ations and this is particularly true of the grandest gardens, on a vast scale, whichcan be unsustainably expensive to maintain. Some such gardens have requiredserious renovation work when the Trust bodies have taken over, while othershave needed to be restored almost from scratch. As was made clear by theannouncement of proposed property closures in March 2009, the NationalTrust for Scotland cannot afford to look after all of the many gardens it has, andthere is little chance of their taking on any more. Several listed in this book,including Kellie Castle and Arduaine, were threatened with closure until publicoutcry saved them, at least in the short term, but at the time of writing thesecond edition of this book, yet another round of garden cutbacks was beingimposed, the result of which will mean fewer qualified and skilled NTSgardeners, an increase in temporary seasonal staff and a loss of continuity andskills. Good graduates from the NTS’s own heritage horticulture course areleaving Scotland in search of work, and the only possible result is a decline inthe standard of NTS gardens.

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The Reid report in 2010 led to the streamlining of NTS governance andinsisted that the organisation needed to review what it owned. If NTS are to ‘doless, better’, as Reid insisted that they must, then they need to decide what todiscard. The NTS Property Portfolio Review 2012–13 at last deals with thisfundamental issue. NTS have admitted that their building and artwork evalu-ation methodology is not adequate for grading gardens:

There are no coherent national or international standards for the evalu-ation of a heritage garden or designed landscape . . . we were confrontedwith the task of either finding a set of existing standards, or making ourown. The starting point for the Review was to take recognised standardsand apply them, so the former was the preferred strategy. Indeed, we didfind a useful set of guidance in the Florence Charter (Preservation ofHistoric Gardens, 1981). The essence of this Charter is that ‘a historicgarden is an architectural and horticultural composition of interest tothe public from the historical or artistic point of view’. As such, it is tobe considered as a monument.

(NTS, ‘Property Portfolio Review’, p. 21)

The National Trust for Scotland evaluation of their portfolio including gardensand designed landscapes uses a grading with seven criteria: value as individualworks of art in their own right; historic value; horticultural, arboricultural orsilvicultural value; architectural value; scenic value; nature conservation value;and archaeological value. ‘Current condition and integrity’ are also taken intoconsideration. The NTS Property Review is probably the most importantdocument of its kind ever produced in Scotland, and it will have far-reachingconsequences, not least of which is to ensure that the most important gardensget more resources, and those considered less significant may have to be closedor operated by voluntary bodies or partnerships outside the main NTSportfolio. Reid suggested ‘guardianship, tenancy and partnership at national andlocal levels’. The assessment of gardens in the review is complicated by the factthey are treated as a single entity with the buildings and wider land holdings. Sofor example Brodick Estate and Falkland Palace are rated very highly as a whole,even if the gardens themselves are of relatively low significance. Other top-scoring building- garden-estate combinations include Crathes and Culross.High-scoring gardens include Branklyn, Broughton House, Inverewe and KellieCastle. Relatively low-scoring gardens include Arduaine, Crarae, Greenbank,Malleny and Pitmedden. Their future is less secure.

Inveresk Lodge scores lowest of all in the review and would have been closedin 2009 were it not for the fact that some of Scotland’s most influential peoplelive near this garden and forced an NTS U-turn. The NTS has challenged thislocal group to come up with a plan to take over the running of the garden, butthis has not been forthcoming. It is a garden with such low conservation valuethat NTS should surely not devote scarce resources to it when other moredeserving gardens are suffering further staff cutbacks. Will alternative models

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such as trusts save NTS gardens in the long term? If a large enough group ofmotivated volunteers and fundraisers can be found and NTS red tape is not toorestrictive, then there is no reason why not. Alternatively, if gardeners need to bepaid for, then a generous benefactor needs to be found and/or a significantendowment created, sufficient to fund the garden. Unless there is significantinvestment in non-core gardening – cafés, shops etc – visitor figures are veryunlikely to increase and therefore income is always likely to be low. For the fewgardens run by private trusts, Galloway House and Kildrummy for example,income barely meets running costs and trustees are often reluctant to make thedaring decisions sometimes needed to move the gardens on. Decline is usuallyinevitable. Every year another great garden slips off the radar, usually away frompublic view.

Historic Scotland’s ‘Gardens and Designed Landscapes Inventory’ lists mostof Scotland’s most important sites but the organisation has little statutory powerto intervene. Some legal protection is given in planning, but current legislationcannot save gardens, only structures/buildings. I’m not easily persuaded thatstate handouts should be used to save gardens. It should always be borne inmind that most of these large gardens were created as self-conscious extrava-gance. Part of the point of their existence was to demonstrate how rich theowners were, what ‘good taste’ their money could buy and how many gardenersthey could employ. These gardens were never meant to be affordable orsustainable. With the exception of the great botanic gardens, almost all ofBritain’s ‘great’ gardens have been made by rich individuals. The setting-up ofthe National Trust and the National Trust for Scotland has led to public accessto many of Britain’s ‘great’ houses and gardens. Few of these gardens werecreated with any plans for the general public to enjoy them. They were built bythe exclusive few for the exclusive few to enjoy. Popping in for a look in thosedays would have meant risking being peppered with shot by one of thegamekeepers. Now that the gardens are publicly owned or in the Trust, theplaythings of the rich have in effect been ‘nationalised’ for us all to enjoy.Pitmedden in Aberdeenshire is a good example of the resources required tomaintain a large-scale formal garden: three miles of box hedging clipped at leasttwice a year and 30,000 annuals to plant out is extremely labour-intensive andtherefore very expensive.

Conservation of private gardens

Since the first edition of this book came out in 2009, a worryingly large numberof gardens have gone from public access: either sold or closed down. Jura House,Torosay, Suntrap, Kerrachar, Myres Castle, Eckford, Ladyburn, Blair House,Aiket Castle and many more. It was ever thus. In previous generations gardenlovers mourned the passing of Keillour, Ascreavie, Balbithan, Belhaven Houseand some of Scotland’s other fine private gardens. Those who remember theKnox Findlays, George and Betty Sherriff, Mary MacMurtrie and Sir George

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Taylor, will of course be disappointed, but I doubt that many of these gardenscould or should have been ‘saved’, particularly these intensely personalplantsmen’s gardens, so intrinsically linked with the character and history oftheir creators. Without their input and energy, is there anything lasting whichcan be preserved? Who knows what the future of the gardens at Torosay Castleor Jura House might be, both sold in recent years and now closed to visitors.

As some gardens close/decline or die, new gardens are born every year, whichmakes things exciting for visitors and garden writers alike. In the five years sincethe last edition over 120 new gardens are included in this book. There are alsoheart-warming stories of gardens which are rescued from oblivion and given anew lease of life. Examples include Mike and Sue Thornley’s on-goingstewardship and improvement of the woodland garden at Glenarn, nearHelensburgh, the recent work at William Bruce masterpieces at Kinross Houseand Balcaskie, and the rebuilt Victorian fernery at Ascog on Bute by the lateWallace and Katherine Fyfe.

Important though the great Scottish gardens are, this book also covers asignificant number of exceptional, often little known private gardens, some largeand others on a more modest scale. Most of these open each year underScotland’s Gardens (formerly Scotland’s Gardens’ Scheme) as individual gardensor as members of group openings where several gardens in one street or villageband together. The Plant Heritage National Collections (formerly NCCPG),have allowed many keen hobby gardeners recognition for their work incollecting and conserving sometimes unfashionable plants to prevent them frombeing lost. And all over Scotland there are thriving community gardens. Britain’srange of commercially available plant species and cultivars is wider than ever,which can be witnessed in the ever-increasing girth of the RHS Plant Finder,now listing over 70,000 plants. In this area at least, we have never had it so good.

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The Scottish Tourist Industry: Marketingand Promoting Scottish Gardens

Scotland enjoys around 8% of UK tourism revenue, attracts approximately 2.2million annual tourist visits from abroad and 6.9 million from other parts of theUK. Scotland’s tourism industry contributed around £4.3 billion (10% of GDP)to the country’s economy in 2012. Surveys conducted by VisitScotland suggestthat gardens are one of Scotland’s top five draws for tourists. You wouldtherefore imagine that VisitScotland, the organisation responsible for Scotland’sTourism industry, would have given the marketing of gardens a high priority.Sadly, until recently, this has been far from the case. The organisation chargedwith promoting tourism in Scotland, VisitScotland is a highly subsidised organ-isation, receiving £44 million in core revenue grant in 2012, for example. To putthis in some perspective, VisitEngland only received around £11 million for thesame period and recieves 80 per cent of the UK foreign visitor spend. I don’tthink Scotland has seen value for money for this enormous subsidy. Worst of allwas the fiasco that was the website VisitScotland.com, which for many yearssuffered two irreconcilable aims in a public/private partnership: to attract andinform visitors and to maximise revenue for the private shareholders. At long lastpoliticians woke up to this issue, calling the then current business model‘patently flawed and obsolete’ and recommending instead a focus on ‘infor-mation provision and a comprehensive, free, listing service. The website is nowback in public ownership; it still needs a great deal of work to make it truly fitfor purpose. See how long it takes to find gardens on the site, if you want to seehow things have improved. Many of VisitScotland’s staff are dedicated, hard-working and efficient, but over many years have been let down by poorleadership and almost constant naïve political meddling, leading to the endlesslydisruptive and expensive restructuring which has gone on in recent years,demoralising staff and destroying continuity. Do these restructurings bring animproved service or better initiatives? Often not, appears to be the conclusion.

Gardens are one of Scotland’s most significant attractions, and many ofthem are attached to historic houses and castles. They are cheap to visit, seldomsubsidised by the taxpayer and bring pleasure to millions. I want to persuade ourpoliticians and civil servants in Westminster and Holyrood, and VisitScotlandin particular, to take this extraordinary and unique resource seriously. The factthat both domestic and foreign tourist numbers have declined by 13% in 2012

compared to 2005 suggests that the country is not being marketed well. If we areto believe in VisitScotland’s avowed ambition to ‘boost Scottish tourism revenueby 50 per cent during the next decade’, then more effective marketing of gardens

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is clearly one of the principal ways that they might achieve it. Garden andnursery tourism of course has a beneficial knock-on effect on hotels, catering,transportation and other parts of the economy. At last in 2013–14 VisitScotland,prompted by garden owners and organisations, has agreed to focus attention onthe potential of Scotland’s garden tourism. Not before time. Watch this space.

In common with some other visitor attractions, visitor numbers for someScottish gardens have been static or declining in the last couple of years. Thereare several possible reasons. The weather is sometimes to blame; wet weekendsare a garden-visiting disaster. Other factors may include budget airlines makingtrips to the sun more accessible, a strong pound, midges, poor marketing andalternative visitor attractions. Scotland has rather too many fine gardens for thenumber of people who live here. Few Scottish gardens receive more than 10,000

visitors a year and therefore entry fees can rarely make gardens self-sustaining,however good they are. There is a perception amongst some Scots that gardenvisiting is simply posh people visiting other posh people’s gardens. Scotland’sGardens (Scheme) ‘Yellow Book’ gardens and their owners tend to confirm theimpression that garden visiting is a middle-aged, white, middle- and upper-classactivity. Contrast this with gardening itself, which is enjoyed by a huge range ofScotland’s population, of every demographic. The reality is that anyone, ofalmost any age or background, can enjoy a good garden. I’d like to inspire morepeople to get out and around their country on short breaks to see what we haveto offer. What better thing to do on a crisp February weekend when few othervisitor attractions are open, than go for a walk through carpets of snowdrops?Why not spend a weekend in the woodland gardens of Argyll in April or Maywhen the rhododendrons are at their peak, or in Perthshire and Fife with lots offine gardens close enough to visit several in one day? Why not go island hoppingto Gigha, Shetland or Bute, all of which have excellent gardens, or tour thesouth-west’s perennials nurseries and woodland and walled gardens? For houseand garden combinations, you can’t do better than Aberdeenshire’s castle trail.With this book in hand or the Scotland’s Gardens annual ‘Yellow Book’, you canspend Sunday afternoons in some of Scotland’s other hidden garden jewels.You’ll be amazed at what there is. I noted on my travels that it is often thegardeners who claim they don’t have time to visit other gardens in other parts ofthe country. This year, why not put down your spade, leave the weeds to growfor a few days and get out and about and meet people just like you, who can’twait to show off their gardens? Wherever you come from and whatever your age,some of Scotland’s gardens should certainly delight you and might inspire youto create your own piece of paradise . . . ready for inclusion in the next editionof this book. George Reid in his report on National Trust Governance graspedthe urgent need to market Scotland and its treasures in a joined up fashion, whathe called ‘Team Scotland – joint working with other heritage agencies inprocurement, marketing, ticketing, publications, electronic point of sale andvisitor information centres.’ This sounds like a first-rate approach to marketingScotland’s gardens and its wider tourism offering. Meetings were taking placewith VisitScotland as this book was going to press. The following list would go

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some way towards achieving the goals:

1. Joined-up thinking. The organisations responsible for Scotland’s gardens,the Royal Botanic Gardens, The National Trust for Scotland, Scotland’sGardens and private gardens need to work together and with VisitScotlandto offer the best most up to date information for the visitor, both domesticand from abroad.

2. The obvious starting point is a properly designed single web portal accessedfrom VisitScotland’s home page which contains full information on all thegardens and nurseries of Scotland. A monthly e-newsletter with details ofgardens to visit and events would be popular. Social media is under-utilised.Garden visiting is weather-dependent and often spontaneous. So peopleneed to know ‘visit the garden this weekend . . . see this now’.

3. Tourist information centres must support local gardens. They need todisplay local garden leaflets without charge rather than requiring gardens tobuy space. At the moment they tend to be filled with non-local mega-attrac-tions with the marketing budgets to afford this. Staff need to be trained ingarden tourism.

4. Obvious opportunities to market gardens and other attractions are notbeing used. The CalMac ferries are a perfect example of what not to do. Onboats to Islay and Bute I noted that there were virtually no locally relevantbooks, leaflets or information available on what to do on the islands. Theseferries are government-subsidised and as such should be forced to markettheir destinations properly. All they seem to sell is lowest common denom-inator tat.

5. VisitScotland must realise that not all gardens have a marketing budget. TheSnowdrop Festival showed how good marketing can create visitor numberswhere previously there were none. And the participating gardens were notcharged to take part. This is the only viable model. As soon as hefty chargesare levied, only the ‘big guys’ will participate.

6. Visitors need help joining the dots: short break regional garden holidaysvisiting the best gardens at the best times of year. Cornwall has proved thatthis works. Argyll in May, Aberdeenshire in July, the south-west in June,Perthshire for autumn colour . . .

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Problems and Issues Facing Scottish Gardens and Horticulture

In many ways we are enjoying a golden era of Scottish gardens and nurseries.However, I’m not complacent enough to think that all is rosy in the world ofScottish horticulture. As has already been discussed, the National Trust forScotland will have to rationalise its garden portfolio, which may result in someclosures while many of the best private gardens are run on a shoestring. Britainhas a major shortage of skilled and trained gardeners and horticulturalists. Thisis a traditionally low-paid profession and many gardeners used to be trained onthe job as apprentices; however, vocational gardeners have often found the needto seek higher-paid jobs (due to the inexorable rise of house prices, for example),with the consequence that fewer stay within the profession. Increasingly, horti-cultural colleges are shrinking or closing down. It might have seemed like a goodidea in the 1980s to open up further education to the free market, but the conse-quence was a dilution of the former centres of excellence and a plethora ofmediocre courses and a shortage of experienced lecturers. Scotland needs a smallnumber of well-funded centres of horticultural excellence with first-class tuition.The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Threave and Auchincruive have tradi-tionally trained Scotland’s most talented gardeners and horticulturalists.Without such centres of excellence, the quality of teaching and therefore ofgraduating students is not high enough.

The National Trust for Scotland’s ‘Centre of Excellence in Heritage Horti-culture’, using some of its gardens to create an educational resource, has consid-erable potential if it proves sustainable. Much of the traditional horticulturalindustry in Scotland is in decline due to cheap imported plants and the rise ofDIY and garden centre chains which demand uneconomic margins of theirsuppliers. Every time Tesco, Asda and the like open a store, they squeeze the lifeout of independent retailers. They drive greengrocers, butchers, chemists, bakersand hardware stores out of business and I have no doubt the same fate awaitssmaller garden centres and nurseries. Tesco’s takeover of Scottish firm Dobbieshas proved detrimental for almost everyone else in Scottish horticulture due tothe effect on the supply chain. Dobbies used to buy from Scottish suppliers andindirectly sustained many small businesses and jobs. Big chains only wantnational suppliers (who can supply all their stores in the UK) and as a matter ofroutine, they demand unsustainable terms and rebates from their suppliers,many of whom are small family-owned nurseries who cannot afford to cut theirmargins. For example when Dobbies took over Sandyholm in the Clyde valley,many Scottish suppliers saw a major part of their turnover disappear, more or

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less overnight. The long term effect of smaller firms being driven out of businessmeans that in future you may struggle to buy Scottish-grown plants at all. Thelarge garden centre chains source most of their plants from Holland and Italy,grown in over-small pots with misleading labels. Scottish gardens are muchbetter off with Scottish-grown plants which have travelled fewer miles, are betteracclimatised and selected for production because they grow well in Scotland.‘Plant miles’ matter just as much as food miles. Since the first edition of thisbook came out, a significant number of Scottish nurseries have gone to the walland more will likely follow. I urge you to support the independent sector whileit still exists; if Scotland’s gardeners do not support our own horticulturalindustry, it may not last much longer.

Pests and diseases have long been something gardeners have battled with,whether using chemicals or cultivation practices. Almost all the effectivechemicals still licensed for use in gardens are now under threat from the EU,which up till now has banned only the most toxic or dangerous. Sodiumchlorate was banned from 2009, glyphosate (Roundup®), myclobutanil (usedfor rose mildew and rust) and many others are under review. I guarantee that ifall these chemicals disappear, Scotland’s farmers and gardeners will be in serioustrouble, whatever the green lobby may claim. A major concern is the spread ofnew plant pathogens such as Ash dieback (Chalara fraxinea) and Sudden oakdeath (Phytophthora ramorum, and P. kernoviae). The Phytophthora species attackRhododendron, Camellia, Magnolia, Viburnum, Drimys, Japanese larch andmany other plants, particularly in shady woodland gardens, and has causedserious damage in some of the famous Cornish woodland gardens and one ortwo in western Scotland. There are attempts to eradicate it, but I suspect thatthis will likely be in vain and we will just have to live with this disease as wealready do with so many others. The most worrying thing is that it spreadsreadily in the wild Rhododendron ponticum, often causing dieback, not neces-sarily fatally, and then this infection can spread to other trees and shrubs. Thereis no doubt that Scotland’s great woodland gardens are under threat from thisdisease. Cornish gardens which have used the chainsaw to open up gardens andreduce over-crowding have found that infection reduces or disappears. ManyScottish gardens will need similar treatment. Ash dieback is expected to coverthe whole country in a matter of years. This was probably brought to the UKon imported ash seedlings. Climate change is, of course, another concern. Itmay allow gardeners to grow less hardy plants, but the downsides are muchmore worrying than any benefits. The most significant in the short term seemsto be changes in rainfall patterns leading to widespread drought and floodingcycles and increased fungal diseases.

Nine ways of improving Scotland’s gardens and horticultural industry

1. The National Trust for Scotland has the responsibility of conserving andmaintaining much of Scotland’s most significant garden heritage. I’m

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convinced that as an organisation it favours buildings over gardens, and sogardens often get a raw deal with regard to resources. NTS must be allowedto rationalise its portfolio. If cuts need to be made, allowing NTS to ‘do lessbetter’ as John Reid put it during his NTS review, then some gardens withlittle conservation or historical value should probably be removed from theNTS portfolio and either run by local volunteers or closed, and theirresources used to support the more important gardens in the portfolio.

2. Scottish gardens and planned landscapes need to be recognised atgovernment level as being of national and international importance.Gardens are part of the heritage and culture of Scotland and great gardensare no less culturally significant than paintings, buildings or music. Whodecides that Little Sparta is less worthy of subsidy than Scottish Opera, forexample?

3. The Historic Scotland Planned Landscape Inventory has limited valueunless it leads to protection of the landscape of sites listed. With protectionmust come assistance to owners with upkeep and repairs, in the forms ofgrants, labour, favourable tax and inheritance breaks.

4. Gardening needs to be more widely recognised as a major force for socialgood. Community gardens all over Scotland foster inclusion, pride, fitnessand healthy eating. Gardens have a role to play in education and the physicaland mental health of the nation, demonstrated by the large number ofgardens affiliated to the charity Trellis, based in Perth.

5. Significant private gardens open to the public should be able andencouraged to apply for match funding for tree surgery and major repairs tosignificant structures such as walled gardens, greenhouses etc. Anendowment fund could be set up for this which gardens could apply to.

6. There seems to be little government interest in or support for the future ofthe Scottish horticultural industry. There is considerable scope to marketScottish plants for Scottish gardens. The issue of ‘plant miles’ needs to bebrought to the fore, and the country of origin of plants should becompulsory on plant labels. The free movement of plants into the UK fromEurope and further afield needs to be far more vigilantly policed to keep outdiseases and pests.

7. VisitScotland and other organisations (NTS, SG, RBGE and so on) whichmarket Scotland’s visitor attractions need to work together to marketScotland’s gardens in a professional, accessible manner, preferably via a webportal. The VisitScotland website must have a properly designed gardenssection easily accessible from the VisitScotland home page, fully compre-hensive and updated regularly. If they can’t or won’t provide it, it should beoutsourced.

8. Scotland needs a small number of properly funded training in horticulturein centres of excellence. As well as lecturers, Scottish horticultural expertssuch as nurserymen, designers and garden centre owners should beencouraged and funded to lecture or teach the next generation. Studentsneed guidance from those working in the trade.

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9. Gardening skills and access to land for growing crops for individuals andcommunities are central to the evolution of local food economies. There aremany examples of best practice in Scotland and south of the border, butfunding tends to be wasted on initiatives such as the Climate ChallengeFund, which spent millions on achieving very little. It just needs joined-upgovernment. I have read dozens of overlapping and repetitive Scottishgovernment and NGO reports on this issue. It is time to stop talking andjust get the job done.

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Criteria for Entry inScotland for Gardeners

This book’s core consists of entries describing Scotland’s gardens, nurseries,garden centres and horticultural organisations. I have included limited coverageof some of Scotland’s best wildflower and forest/woodland sites; for furtherdetails on Scotland’s wild places, consult the excellent guides listed in theBibliography. Details of some environmental and conservation bodies are listedtoo.

Gardens

I have tried to include almost all gardens in Scotland open to the publicregularly or by appointment. There are some gardens which only open forScotland’s Gardens (Scheme) one day a year and I have even slipped in one ortwo which are not really open at all but are so good that you will need to writea persuasive letter to let you in. Be aware that gardens change their opening andclosing times at short notice, so make use of the ‘Yellow Book’ and Scotland’sGardens (www.scotlandsgardens.org) and www.glendoick.com (follow links toScotland for Gardeners) websites to check the latest information. Many ofScotland’s best gardens are owned by people who don’t want constant visitorsbut don’t mind a few from time to time. Your tact and good behaviour will letyou in and probably the next people who ask. A few gardens such as theexcellent Bower House and Balcaskie have asked not to be included in this book,so you’ll need to look them up on the Scotland’s Gardens website to see if theyare open.

Nurseries and garden centres

Scotland is blessed with a variety of specialist retail nurseries and a dwindlingnumber of fine independent garden centres. Most of these are automaticallyincluded in this book if they grow their own plants. I have not includednurseries and cash-and-carries which are trade/wholesale only. For gardencentres I asked myself two questions: Does it have a speciality? And is this a placea non-local would be interested in visiting? This is true whether the gardencentre sells a huge range of seed potatoes, rhubarb, azaleas, ferns, pots, grows itsown bedding, has a huge range of Koi carp or a great restaurant. All are equally

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deserving of inclusion. If the answer is no to both questions I have generally notincluded them.

Scotland’s Horticultural Societies

This book lists many specialist horticultural societies, which cover a widespectrum of interests from vegetables to flower arranging, sweet peas to rhodo-dendrons (see p. 492). In addition, Scotland has an astonishing number ofnational and local horticultural societies. These vary greatly in size and somecome and go from year to year so there is never a definitive list. Some havewebsites and this is usually the best way to get in touch with them, as the societyoffice bearers tend to change from year to year. Most offer a similar range ofactivities: lectures and workshops, journals and newsletters, garden visits andshows. I had toyed with the idea of including all Scotland’s local horticulturalclubs and societies in this book until I learned that there may be as many as 400.Thankfully, the Scottish Gardeners Forum (www.scottishgardenersforum.org.uk) has a database of nearly all of them. All you need to do is contact SGFand they’ll put you in touch with your nearest one.

Shows

Though shows have seen somewhat of a decline over the last 50 years, there arestill plenty of good ones around the country, some large and some small. TheScottish Rock Garden Club runs shows in several Scottish towns and cities inspring. Many other societies have annual shows: the Scottish RhododendronSociety and the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society for example. Someshows are covered in the entries under the societies themselves and forthcomingdates can be found on their websites. ‘Gardening Scotland’ at Ingliston isScotland’s largest show. Abandoned by the RHS almost before it had got going,it was taken on by Rural Projects and has been well run by Jim Jermyn and histeam for many years. This show has actually become a better and more relaxedevent without the RHS and attracts thousands to Ingliston the first weekend inJune. The indoor displays are usually impressive and you are certainly in retailheaven if you like sourcing interesting plants from specialist nurseries. The maindisappointment is the generally relatively low standard of outdoor gardens,partly due to the weather and the lack of available sponsorship. The show coulddo with an injection of imagination, as it does tend to follow the same formulafrom year to year. Late summer sees the Ayr and Dundee flower shows, some-what swamped by the selling of tat and clobber, but with displays of carrots,parsnips, Kelsae onions, leeks, fuchsias, dahlias and chrysanthemums.

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Getting Around Scotland andSuggested Garden Itineraries

It is possible to visit many of the gardens in this book by public transport if youhave plenty of time, but there is no doubt that a car is almost essential for gardenvisiting in many rural areas. Car hire can be relatively cheap in the UK, butpetrol is expensive and narrow roads in the west are best navigated in small cars.Trains cover much of the country and some gardens can be reached by the railnetwork with a bit of walking or use of taxis. Rail rover tickets valid for severaldays are good value for touring the country. The Highland Rover includestrains, buses and some CalMac ferries in the Highland region, while theFreedom of Scotland passes cover the whole country. Some of these tickets arefor non-UK tourists only, and must be purchased before you arrive in the UK.Scotland has a good network of buses, and local buses will generally let you offas near gardens as they can, on their route. In remote areas post buses are usedbut beware, as they only follow the route once a day. You can try hitching, butthis seems to be a declining way of getting around. Several operators offerminibus tours of gardens which are good value for small groups. Scheduledgarden tours are offered by Brightwater Holidays based in Fife. Islands usuallyrequire the use of CalMac ferries (0800 066 5000; www.calmac.co.uk). It is notnecessary to take your car to Achamore (Gigha), Colonsay, Brodick (Arran) orgardens on Bute as gardens can be reached on foot and public transport is good.

Recommended garden tours in spring and summer

I am often asked to recommend itineraries in different parts of Scotland fordifferent times of year. I have concentrated in the seasons of spring for woodlandgardens and summer for walled gardens, perennials and fruit and vegetables. Seepp. 498–501 for snowdrops, trees and autumn colour suggestions.

Edinburgh, Borders and south-west Scotland: spring

Starting or finishing with Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh, head south toDawyck, near Peebles, but beware that this garden can be badly frosted, partic-ularly in April. Head south-west to some amazing spring gardens: Threave,Corsock, Glenwhan, Logan and Logan House and Castle Kennedy for displaysof rhododendrons, magnolias, spring bulbs and lots more.

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Edinburgh, Borders and south-west Scotland: summer

Don’t miss RBG Edinburgh and Shepherd House (limited opening), plusnurseries near Edinburgh such as Binny Plants and Macplants. Then head southto Kelso, to Floors and its amazing walled garden. Two private gardens withlimited opening are the roses at Carolside and the gardens at Portmore. Headwest into Dumfries and Galloway where the walled garden at Shambellie isworth a detour. Threave’s walled garden, rock garden and perennial displays aregood all summer long. Further west Cally Gardens, Glenwhan and Logan aregood year-round gardens, the latter with tender plants in one of Scotland’smildest climates.

Perthshire, Fife and central Scotland: spring

Cluny, Branklyn, Glendoick for rhododendrons and woodland plants in April–May in a mild year and May in a cold or late one.

Perthshire, Fife and central Scotland: summer

My ‘big four’ for this time of year are probably Kellie Castle, Cambo, Pitmuies,Drummond Castle, probably too many to squeeze into a long day. Kellie andCambo are 15 minutes apart, the other two at least an hour away by car.

Argyll and the west: spring

You could spend up to two weeks or more visiting all the great west coast springgardens from Inverewe and Attadale in the north to woodland gardens in Argylland the islands: Arduaine, Crarae, Benmore and Glenarn are probably the bigfour. Ardkinglas, An Cala and Achamore on Gigha are also well worth visiting.

North-east: summer

Garden and castle combinations reign up here: roses at Drum, perennials atCrathes, fruit at Fyvie, perennials, fruit and vegetables at Castle Fraser and theparterre at Pitmedden.

Northern loop

From Inverness, the series of walled gardens along the coastal route: Dunrobin,Langwell and Dunbeath (last two by appointment only), Sandside, Castle ofMay, perhaps a detour to Orkney or Sheltand . . . back via Inverewe whose finewalled garden and southern hemisphere plants are well worth seeing in summerand Attadale.

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Glasgow, Ayrshire, Bute: summer

On Bute, three great attractions are Mount Stuart, Ardencraig’s bedding andAskog Fernery, all doable on a daytrip from Wemyss Bay to Rothsay. Culzeancastle on the Ayrshire coast is the must visit garden in this part of the world.

Land art, sculpture and artist gardens

Scotland has the possibly the world’s largest concentration of this hard-to-definecategory of sculpture in gardens and landscapes and in sculpting the landscapeitself. The poet of the movement is Ian Hamilton Finlay, whose masterpiece atLittle Sparta is a must visit (open limited afternoons in summer). The majorcontemporary player is Charles Jencks, who has created both his own privateGarden of Cosmic Speculation at Portrack near Dumfries (open one day peryear) and landforms at Juniper Artland, the Gallery of Modern Art in Edin-burgh and a new development at Crawick Artland. The Glenkiln sculptures andvarious works by Andy Goldsworthy and Joe Smith can be found in gardens andin wild locations in Dumfries and Galloway.

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Jupiter Artland

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How To Use This Book

I have divided Scotland up into regions. The boundaries, particularly in thecentre, can be rather arbitrary. I have taken distance into account so each regioncould be used as a day or two-day trip to visit several gardens in one go. I’ve triedto make the entries as up to date as possible but unfortunately it is inevitablethat one or two of the gardens and nurseries close each year. To that end I listamendments and changes that I hear about on my website www.glendoick.com,which will be a source of the most up-to-date information on garden openings.Do let me know via the website if you find that any gardens in this book areclosed or no longer worth a look. And even more important, let me know ofanything I have missed, which can be included in any further editions. Theopening times and other details of gardens are believed to be correct at time ofwriting but be aware that times can change at short notice. Make use of websitesto ascertain latest opening status of gardens. Many gardens listed open forScotland’s Gardens on one or more days per year and many also accept visits byappointment. If you really want to see a garden which is not open at aconvenient time, write a decent, old-fashioned, well-informed letter saying whyyou want to visit. ‘I have heard about your amazing new peony border and as Ihave the national collection . . .’. I cannot over-emphasise how important it isto ‘behave’ when visiting gardens. Don’t kid yourself that your ‘wee bit ofpocket-stuffing’ does not matter. Taking seed heads and cuttings is stealing. Andif you do steal things, you are likely to cause garden owners to shut their gates.People are always telling me how their mum ‘nicks a few plants or cuttings’, asif this were OK. It is particularly depressing when many of the rare treasures dugup in full flower are almost certain to die. No one wins. Most gardeners arehappy to share with those who ask. Most gardeners welcome children, but don’tlet them run riot. My own children, Jamie and Finn, test-drove many of thechildren’s attractions on offer for the first edition and I have included infor-mation on these where available. Dogs are welcome at some properties butmany insist that dogs are not allowed. Almost without exception, dogs must bekept on a lead at all times. If a garden has no dog symbol, you can assume thatdogs are not allowed. Ballindalloch (see p. 82) gets my unofficial award forScotland’s most dog-friendly garden. It even has a dog maze!

I have included disability access information where available. I have,however, noted that many SG gardens claim good disabled access when franklythe terrain, steps and gravel paths mean that you would need a strong helper toget a wheelchair round. The wheelchair symbol enclosed in brackets means thatthe garden is partly or theoretically accessible.

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Aside from walking in the countryside, garden visiting is just about thecheapest activity available. Gardens are astonishing good value and few of themcharge more than £5. Many are free. You usually pay as much for the latte andscone at the end as you do for an hour or two visiting the garden.

Key to entries

Opening times and prices

Gardens tend to change opening times and prices from year to year, so I haveendeavoured to give general details about likely opening times for theforeseeable future. Many NTS and larger gardens open at Easter or on 1 April,whichever is earlier, and close in September or October.

Prices are given in bands:

£: up to £3 ££: £3 – £5.99 £££: £6+

A price band with an asterisk (e.g. £*) indicates that gardens are free to thosewith an appropriate membership or season ticket for organisations such asNational Trust for Scotland, National Trust or Historic Scotland. Some gardenshave free entry to Royal Horticultural Society members, though sometimes onoff-peak days only. These gardens are listed in the RHS handbook and itsmagazine, The Garden.

Contacting gardens

Where possible I have given several methods of getting in touch with gardenowners with address, phone, email and website details. Some owners do notwant phone/email details published and you may have to write to apply to visit.Email is excellent for those who use it regularly but beware: some emailaddresses are clearly rarely used. If phoning/faxing from abroad, the UK code is44 and you need to remove the ‘0’, so for example 01738 860205 becomes 441738

860205.Many garden owners have expressed frustration that occasionally people

make appointments to visit and then do not turn up. It is only polite to makecontact and cancel if you can’t make it.

Dogs

Only those gardens which are marked with the dog symbol allow dogs, on alead. Assume that you can’t take your dog, if there is no symbol. Those with the

symbol allow dogs in the woodland and/or policies but not in the gardensthemselves. It goes without saying that you should take away anything whichyour dog leaves in any part of a cultivated garden.

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Catering

The catering symbol is for cafés and restaurants only. Most gardens open underScotland’s Gardens offer teas at the garden or nearby on open days, so I have notincluded this as a symbol.

Plants for sale

Likewise many gardens offer surplus plants for sale on SG open days but onlythose gardens with a nursery/garden shop or general production of plants arelisted with the PLA symbol.

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Symbols

Self-catering accommodation for rent

Bed and breakfast

Catering (café/restaurant, etc)

Disabled good access

Partly accessible, or accessible with help

Dogs allowed, all dogs MUST be on a lead. If the dogsymbol does not appear, assume that dogs are not allowed

Dogs allowed in part of property, usually policiesonly but not in the gardens

Gift shop

Hotel with meals

House or castle can be visited

Mail order nursery

Plant sales

Toilets

Play area or other things for children to see/do

Facebook

Twitter

Social media barely existed when the first edition of this book came out. At therisk of sounding like an old fogey, I’m not much of a fan but I do understandthat some people can’t live without Facebook and Twitter. I have added thesesymbols where nurseries and gardens have told me they use them. Many morewill probably add them. Equally, within the next five years Facebook might gothe way of the fax (which I removed from this edition). It is hard to keep up!

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Scotland for Gardeners

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North

(including Orkney and Shetland):Loch Ness, Black Isle, Caithness

and East Sutherland

The north of mainland Scotland containssome important gardens, often quite widelyspaced apart, but the routes between them aremostly spectacular. Most gardens are not farfrom the sea, which means that a loop aroundthe coastal roads takes in most of them, with adetour across the Black Isle. Some of the bestgardens include the castles of Dunrobin andDunbeath on the east coast and House ofTongue on the north coast. Significantnurseries on Loch Ness, the Black Isle andBeauly Firth include: Abriachan, Ardfearn,Highland Liliums and Poyntzfield Herbs.

Dunrobin Castle

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Abriachan Garden NurseryCarved out of a steep, south-facing hillside overlooking Loch Ness,this is a terraced woodland garden which seems to be in perfectharmony with its surroundings. This small nursery specialises inAuricula, Helianthemum (a national collection), hardy geraniums andhas all sorts of choice and common plants, especially herbaceous andgrasses. I admired the New Zealand grass Chionochloa conspicua nearthe car park. The Davidsons are an excellent team, a contrast instyles in the way they impart their extensive plant knowledge: shetalks non-stop, he listens and interjects briefer pearls of wisdom andthey both know their onions. If you need to know what to grow inthis area and how to grow it, this is the place to come. They seem tobe able to grow almost anything here: steep slopes provide good frostdrainage to the loch below, and there is free-draining soil. And theviews from the top of the garden over Loch Ness are wonderful. Asthey say on their website: ‘On one level it is a garden of infinitedetail; on another the eye follows sweeps of colour leading into thesurrounding magnificence of loch and mountain. The garden is fullof plants from the countries where we have previously lived andgardened . . . olearias, pittosporums and flaxes from New Zealand;tea berries and diddle-dee from the Falkland Islands.’

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Abriachan Garden NurseryLochness-side, Inverness, IV3 8LA

Mr and Mrs D. DavidsonFebruary–November: daily 9am–7pm or dusk if earlier;gardens £, nursery freeA82 Inverness–Drumnadrochitroad. Right on the roadside, doNOT follow signs to AbriachanvillageT: 01463 861232E: info@lochnessgarden.comwww.lochnessgarden.com

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AmatAmat House is a Ross clan chieftain’s hunting lodge in typicalVictorian style with castellations and a small square tower. Theremote setting boasts one of the best bits of relict Caledonian pineforest. The house stands on the River Carron, famous for its salmonfishing, and is surrounded by fine mature trees underplanted withrhododendrons surrounding extensive lawns. There are woodlandwalks along the river bank and you may be lucky enough to spotfoxes, stoats, pine martens and otters and who knows, perhapsescaped animals from Paul Lister’s fenced animal park estate nextdoor: moose, wolves, wild boar.

Ardfearn NurseryArdfearn Nursery was established in 1987 on the south shore of theBeauly Firth, in an old farm 4 miles from Inverness; cattle byres andmilking sheds were converted to plant sales and production. Thenursery was founded by Jim Sutherland and is now headed by hisson, Alasdair. The nursery has long been well known for its range ofalpines, but they now also grow a huge range of perennials andshrubs as well as bare-rooted hedging and trees in winter. They grow95% of what they sell on-site and have one of the largest selections ofhome-grown stock in this part of Scotland. Alpines are demonstrated

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AmatArdgay, Sutherland, IV24 3BS

Jonny and Sara Shaw1 weekend SG or by appointment;££Off A837, take road from Ardgayto Croick 9 milesT: 01863 755320E: Saraamat@btinternet.comwww.amatsalmon.com

Ardfearn NurseryBunchrew, by Inverness,Highland, IV3 8RH

Jim and Alasdair SutherlandMon–Fri: 9am–5pm;A862 between Inverness andBeauly, approximately 4 milesfrom InvernessT: 01463 243250 or 01463223607www.ardfearn-nursery.co.uk

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in a range of display beds and alpine troughs. Ardfearn also run a giftshop which is eastern and alternative in its range of products. Thenursery’s mail order is currently suspended, pending broadbandconnection locally.

Ballone CastleArchitect Lachan Stewart and his wife Annie, founder of the Antacompany, spent six years restoring this previously ruined sixteenth-century castle on the windswept point on the far eastern end of thepeninsula between the Dornoch and Moray Firths, and making it afamily home. The compact walled garden, which was built fromscratch below the castle walls, allows a wide range of plants to begrown while cutting down the force of the ferocious winds.Matching the colour of the castle, the creamy-yellow lime-washedgarden walls curve gracefully at the far end. Lachlan and Anniewanted the garden to relate to the castle itself, using an adaptedPictish pattern for the layout of the beds with a series of laurel,Escallonia and Olearia hedges creating a sort of thick parterre, whichthen allowed a pallet of carefully chosen plants to establish. Theseinclude shrub roses and ramblers on the walls with espaliered applesand gooseberries. Dark purple tulips are matched with white‘Pheasant Eye’ Narcissus in spring followed in summer by a widerange of perennials and shrubs such as Buddleja. Ballone is a fineachievement in a very challenging site, proving once again that aslong as wind can be moderated, a huge range of plants can be grown,even in very exposed sites. The Stewarts also designed the QueenMother Memorial Garden at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.

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Ballone CastleTarbat, Portmahomack, IV20 1RD

Annie & Lachlan Stewart1 day per year Open DoorsScheme and by appointmentFrom A9 near Tain or B9165 toPortmahomack, turn right andfirst left just before PortahomackE: annie@anta.co.uk

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Biblical Garden, GolspieOne of two biblical gardens in Scotland, this is the better one, amillennium project created by members of St Andrews Church inGolspie in the grounds of Seaforth House, an old people’s home.The garden contains biblical references, an open tomb with a largeboulder for example, and has contemporary design touches. It is wellmaintained by volunteers co-ordinated by Anne Barclay. Thankfullythe biblical plant connections have been loosely interpreted, as mostof the desert plants of Israel and Egypt don’t much care for Scotland’sclimate. Jacob’s Ladder gets in due to the name, for example, as doobvious candidates such as Cercis (the Judas Tree) and myrtle. Whenwe visited in June, this was a blaze of colour, with lavender, lupins,delphiniums, valerian, poppies, etc. A stone cross and colouredmosaic added structure. Designed with good access for wheelchairsalong gravel paths, this is one of the best community-run gardens inScotland, definitely well worth a short stop on the A9 or in combi-nation with Dunrobin Castle nearby. The main path provides goodwheelchair access, though the side gravel paths may need assistance.

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Biblical Garden, GolspieSeaforth House, Golspie,Sutherland, KW10 6RH

Ground owned by HighlandCouncilAlways open; freeOn the main A9 road in Golspietown centre, opposite theOrcadian Stone Geology Centre

Ballone Castle

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Brackla WoodMost of Scotland’s woodland gardens are on a relatively large scale,but Brackla Wood shows that this gardening style can be achievedvery well in a packed 1-acre garden. Under the Scots pines and othertrees are collections of hellebores, particular favourites of SusanDudgeon, and hostas in a stumpery, created by her husband Ian. Ascattering of rhododendrons surround a set of small ponds and thegarden attracts a good range of wildlife, including red squirrels and apine marten. Behind the house is a fine natural rock garden filledwith a wide range of alpines and perennials, which is overlooked by asummer house that features an attractive spoked round windowrescued by Ian from an old hydro-power plant. Wisteria grows onthe house and the property is bordered by a honeysuckle hedge.

BrahanBrahan is a 4,000-acre estate not far from Inverness. The originalhouse was demolished in the 1950s and the old stables are now themain house, which has a private garden around it (not open). Brahanis a rather wild and overgrown arboretum (the dell) planted alongthe driveways, with a collection of fine mature trees, including someUK champions. Most of the best are conifers: redwoods, spruce,hemlock, Thuja, pines, etc., and some are labelled. There are also afew species rhododendrons as well as abundant wildlife/bird life inthe lochs, swamps and alongside the River Conon, which runs downto the Cromarty Firth. I was informed that much-needed renovationand tree surgery was planned at Brahan, though I failed to see anysign of it when I visited in August 2013; the place was a bit of anovergrown jungle. Brahan was the home of Scotland’s own version ofNostradamus, Kenneth Mackenzie, known as the Brahan Seer. Hewas executed in the seventeenth century for his prophecies andpredictions, many of which have apparently come true. There areseveral holiday properties for rent on the estate.

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Brackla WoodCulbokie, Dingwall, Ross & Cromarty, IV7 8GY

Susan and Ian DudgeonSG days (June) and byarrangement; ££From A9 turn off to Culbokie. Atfar end of village, turn right afterplaying fields towards Munlochy.After about a mile turn right into‘No Through Road’ signposted‘Upper Braefindon’. Garden isfirst on leftT: 01349 877765E: smdbrackla@aol.com

BrahanNear Dingwall, IV7 8EE

Mr and Mrs A. MathesonDell open year round, SG 1 day some years;A835 west from Maryburghroundabout, 2 miles, well-signpostedE: info@brahan.comwww.brahan.com

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Bught Floral HallsThis park and greenhouse complex opened in 1993, next door to theformer Inverness Council nursery. Outdoors there are numerousbeds of shrubs, alpines and bedding, raised beds and an impressivewildflower meadow. A training programme for people with learningdifficulties is run in the gardens. The most popular attractions arethe two linked greenhouses: one, with a sunken walkway, is filledwith a fine collection of cacti and related plants; the other, with amore tropical feel, boasts houseplants, bromeliads, a waterfall andponds filled with Koi carp. The 2012 Memory Garden and Tree ofTranquility is a memorial for parents who have miscarried or lostyoung children. Bught is a popular place, with thousands of visitorseach year.

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Bught Floral HallsFloral Hall and Training Centre,Bught Lane, Inverness, IV3 5SS

Highland CouncilDaily: April–October 10am–5pm,Nov–March 10am–4pmFollow signs to Fort William/FortAugustus from centre ofInverness on A82 road to thewestern edge of town. Turn leftjust before the bridge over theCaledonian CanalT: 01463 713553www.invernessfloralhall.comCoffee shop T. 01463 229778

Brahan

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Castle and Gardens of MeyThe Queen Mother bought this castle on the windswept north coastof Scotland in the early 1950s as a dilapidated ruin. The garden isphased for August and September, when she used to holiday inCaithness. The walled garden, right next to the castle, has a 12ftseaward wall to cut down salt spray and is divided into compart-ments, with hedges and attractive corner turrets. It is rather a jumbleof plants: rhododendrons, roses in island beds, buddlejas, herba-ceous, mixed borders and lots of fruit on the walls. There are alsofine glasshouses. Outside the walled area in the East Garden areplantings of Fuchsia, Potentilla, masses of Astilbe, impressive drifts ofPrimula florindae and a bed of rugosa roses, with gnarled sycamoresproviding some wind shelter. The quality of gardening here has beena bit variable since the trust took over, and some visitors complainthat some of the essence of the Queen Mother’s garden has now beenlost. The castle feels more of a home than the various royal palacesand the many guides in the rooms will tell you the Queen Mother’sstory as you go round.

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Castle and Gardens of MeyThurso, Caithness, KW14 8XH

The Queen Elizabeth Castle ofMey TrustDaily: May–end September10.30am–4pm, closed first 2weeks August. SG open daysseveral times a year; ££ (castleextra)Well signposted between Thursoand John O’ GroatsT: 01847 851473F: 01847 851475www.castleofmey.org.uk

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Dunbeath CastleDunbeath is one of north Scotland’s most exciting recent gardenprojects in a stunning location and singular planned landscape. Thetree-lined drive frames the castle from afar as you approach, in adeliberately designed piece of drama by nineteenth-century architectDavid Bryce, who made alterations to a much older (fourteenthcentury) castle. The vista frames the gleaming cream-white castleperched on the cliff top, with views beyond out to North Sea oilplatforms and offshore wind turbines in the far distance. In this bookI give David Bryce a hard time for some of his more over-the-topVictorian extravagances, but this one is first class. Given Dunbeath’ssituation, wind is obviously an issue; the Threiplands report 100-mile-an-hour winds that can blow a human over, so most of theplantings are in the shelter of two matching Victorian walled gardens,one on each side of the drive. The two gardens form a yin–yang orhis–hers contrast, reflecting the tastes of the owners. Planted first wasthe feminine southerly (right-hand) garden, with the original designdrawn up in 1998 by Chelsea Gold Medallist Xa Tollemache, whosegarden at Helmingham in Suffolk had greatly impressed theThreiplands. The Tollemache structural plan has been implementedbut Claire Threipland and gardener Neil Millman have adapted andadded to the plantings as the garden has evolved. The garden has atraditional cruciform design with a path following the boundarywalls and a cross axis of mirror-planted herbaceous borders in mixedcolours. A combination of blue Agapanthus and deepest pinkPotentilla caught my eye. The four quadrants each contain a series of

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Dunbeath CastleDunbeath Estate Office,Dunbeath, Caithness, KW6 6ED

Mr and Mrs S.W. MurrayThreiplandBy appointment only; ££Coming north on A9 the castleentrance is on the right enteredvia Dunbeath village, just beforethe bridge. Turn right at thevillage post office and you’ll findthe gates at the end of the roadT: 01593 731308E: enquiries@dunbeathestate.comwww.dunbeath.co.uk

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contrasting garden rooms, divided by hedges, Fuchsia magellanica,pillars and pergolas, entered from various angles, maze-like as youexplore it, revealing new surprises once you have worked your wayin, featuring roses, cutting borders, potager combinations, obeliskand column centrepieces. The planting choices are bold andinnovative: you won’t often see a purple cabbage, artichoke andallium combination, for example. The long greenhouse containshouseplants, peaches, figs and apricots. Two vantage points to lookdown on the whole garden are provided by the corner turrets, whichalso provide great views of the castle and the impressive slate ‘egg’sculpture designed by Tertious Murray Thriepland and built by MacYoung, who also constructed the garden buildings. The northerly (orleft-hand) walled garden is Tertious’s domain, what he calls ‘a waterand fantasy garden’, with a water feature made of the old laundrywater butts, a series of ponds, a hexagonal ‘sitooterie’ and a glass andcopper gazebo on a mound, from which there are great views overand out of the garden. This most masculine of gardens is full ofthrusting stonework and buildings, and head gardener Neil hassoftened the formerly stark effect of the hard landscaping with a widerange of grasses, particularly Miscanthus, which look good right intowinter time. Dunbeath is mainly a summer and early autumngarden, but a walk of rhododendrons has recently been planted inthe sycamore and beech woodland to give more spring interest. Thecombination of the most dramatic planned landscapes in Scotlandand the excellent and singular walled garden plantings make this oneof the best newer Scottish gardens and Julie Edmonstone, Scotlandinspector for The Good Gardens Guide, considers Dunbeath the bestdesigned walled garden in Scotland. I certainly agree that it is upwith the best. Open by appointment.

Dunrobin CastleDunrobin has probably the most extensive gardens in the north ofScotland, combining formal lines, best seen from the castle highabove it, and good planting, best appreciated close up. Thenineteenth-century castle was remodelled from an older building anddesigned for the Duke of Sutherland by Sir Charles Barry, designerwith Pugin of the Houses of Parliament. Inspired by Frenchchateaux, with a Victorian Gothic twist, a hint of Disney and a greatdeal of profligate extravagance, with 189 rooms (only a few of whichare open on the tours), Dunrobin is easily the largest house innorthern Scotland. The dukedom once covered 1.3 million acres,from which crofters were evicted in the Highland Clearances in theearly nineteenth century and replaced with more lucrative sheep;presumably the proceeds were spent on the house. The instigator ofthe Clearances, the first Duke of Sutherland managed to have astatue erected to himself with an inscription which was surely written

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Dunrobin CastleGolspie, Sutherland, KW10 6SF

Lord StrathnaverMid March–mid October:Monday–Saturday 10.30am–4.30/5pm, Sunday 12–4.30pm;£££ castle and gardens. Café inthe castle.Clearly signed just north ofGolspie on the A9 Inverness–Wick road, 50 miles north ofInvernessT: 01408 633177E: info@dunrobincastle.netwww.dunrobincastle.co.uk

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with bitter sarcasm by the ‘grateful tenantry’, bearing in mind that15,000 crofters were evicted from his lands. The views from the hillswhere the monument stands are fine. Barry also designed the formalgardens, which were apparently influenced by those at Versailles andTrentham, near Stoke. The castle is perched high on the rocks, infront of which a series of steep terraces leads down to the flat lawnsand the sea beyond the walls at the bottom. The steep bank coveredwith scrubby shrubs is a somewhat neglected opportunity. Thegarden below is divided into two parterres, each laid out aroundcircular fountains, surrounded by mature trees. The parterres are wellplanted with a succession of colour through the seasons; tulips giveway to wallflowers, to summer bedding and fuchsias and in autumn,penstemons and dahlias. Rooms are formed by hedges of Sorbus andbeech. Step-over trained apples are used to line some of the parterres,while height is given by wooden wigwams, which echo the turretsand minarets of the castle above, onto which climb roses, clematisand sweet peas. Beneath these are bold borders of Nepeta, Geranium,tulips, Asiatic lilies and other perennials and bedding plants, whileAralia elata is used as a feature plant. The historical landscape hasbeen restored and renewed but is being gardened by Ian Crisp andhis team in a contemporary manner. Important, courageous strategic

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decisions are being made to cut down overgrown parts and replant,which is to be applauded. As Patrick Taylor notes, the parterre looksgreat from the castle and the castle from the parterre. There are finesnowdrops, daffodils and bluebells in spring. A spectacular castle,good café, odd museum in the summerhouse and falconry displaysmake Dunrobin a good day out for all the family. The entry priceincludes the castle, museum and grounds.

Foulis CastleFoulis Castle, seat of the clan Munro, was built in the eighteenthcentury when the previous one was burnt down after the 1745uprising. The policies have spectacular snowdrops, daffodils, somerhododendrons and azaleas and a young arboretum. The mainattraction is the courtyard garden on two levels behind the mainhouse. The lower section by the house is paved, and is dominated byshrub roses; the upper section is gravelled with a peony border,perennials and shrubs, including some more usually associated withthe west coast, such as Abutilon, Carpenteria, Leptospermumscoparium and Olearia ‘Henry Travers’.

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Foulis CastleEvanton, Ross-shire, IV16 9UX

Mrs E. Munro of FoulisBy appointment in writing only,well in advance.Just off the A9 south-west ofEvantonT: 01349 830212www.clanmunro.org.uk/castle.htm

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Gardens Scotland andCraigiewood B&BAt their bed and breakfast, Gavin and Araminta Dalmayer areexcellent hosts for garden lovers who want somewhere to stay in thenorth of Scotland. Gavin is a garden designer and keen plantsmanwho can organise tours to the gardens of northern Scotland, guidesgarden tours from House of Aigas, and can advise you where to godepending on what time of year you come and stay. Araminta oftenassists Claire Macdonald with cookery demonstrations. Craigiewoodcan accommodate up to six guests and is situated just north ofInverness, on the Black Isle, within an easy day’s driving distance ofgardens such as Inverewe, Cawdor and Dunrobin. Tours can be forhalf or full days or for several days and nights.

Highland Liliums Garden Centreand NurseryThis is both a wholesale nursery and a small garden centre. It nolonger specialises in lilies, but rather in a wide range of perennialsand alpines which are produced in their own nursery. The gardencentre also stocks a fine range of roses, shrubs and trees. It is a bit ofa challenge to find it, as it lies down a series of winding single-tracklanes, but there are road signs. This is an old-style nursery with agreat range of plants and Neil MacRitchie and his staff under SueMullins really know what grows well in this part of Scotland. A newshop was built in 2006, making this more like a garden centre.

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Gardens Scotland andCraigiewood B&BCraigiewood, North Kessock,Inverness-shire, IV1 3XG

Gavin and Araminta DalmayerOff A9 north of Kessock, toDrumsmittal and Kilmuir, after250m turn right to Kilmuir for 2miles; ignore road to Kilmuir,carry straight on for 1 mile, takeright-hand fork, uphill.Craigiewood 2nd on leftT: 01463 731 628E: gavdal@ gardens-scotland.co.ukGarden Tours www.gardens-scotland.co.ukB&B www.craigiewood.co.uk

Highland Liliums Garden Centreand Nursery10 Loaneckheim, Kiltarlity,Beauly, Inverness-shire, IV4 7JQ

Neil MacRitchieMonday–Saturday (year round)8am–5pm, Sunday (April–September only) 10am–5pmGarden centre is signposted fromthe junction of the A833Drumnadrochit/Kiltarlity road andthe A862 Inverness–Beauly roadT: 01463 741698 or 01463 741365E: highlandliliums@yahoo.co.ukwww.highlandliliums.co.uk

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House of AigasNaturalist and writer John Lister Kaye rescued the 1760s House ofAigas from demolition in the 1970s, and built both his family homeand the now famous Aigas Highland Field Studies Centre for theHighlands there. A huge range of courses, tours and activities takeplace here. The garden is largely the work of Lucy, Lady Lister Kaye,who explained that her husband John loves wildlife and trees butdoes not understand the rest of the gardening idea. ‘He’s really goodat driving a digger’, she was keen to give him that credit at least. Thehouse is set in informal gardens, with a woodland walk with acollection of fine trees planted in Victorian times, including severalmulti-stemmed Western red cedar, a pond, Japanese maples, azaleasand rhododendrons, carpets of heather, lilies, daffodils and insummer honeysuckle and clematis on the walls. The terrace aroundthe house is attractively planted with hostas, grasses, lilies, shrubs andpots with bedding.

House of Tongue and Eddie’s GardenOne of mainland Scotland’s most northerly and isolated walledgardens, House of Tongue was built by the Mackays in 1678 and1750 and is the home of the Countess of Sutherland. The key to itssuccess is the walled garden, which provides shelter in an exposed,

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House of AigasAigas Field Centre, Beauly,Inverness-shire, IV4 7AD

Sir John & Lady Lister KayeSG 2 days per year or byappointment, open to guests; ££On the A831 5 miles south ofBeaulyT: 01463 782443E: sheila@aigas.co.uk;www.aigas.co.uk

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windy site and it is a pleasant surprise to find this oasis of horti-culture on the north coast of Scotland. Gardener Richard Rowelooks after a fine collection of shrub roses and deep herbaceousborders filled with spectacular lupins, peonies, Geranium, Thalictrumand bedded-out dahlias. By late June the colour is really gettinggoing and the cool northerly location helps things last well, wind andrain permitting. There is also an orchard, a glasshouse with pelargo-niums, vegetable garden and a terrace. Another surprise awaits at theend of the drive: Sinclair Cottage was the home of Eddie Mackie, aretired bus driver who rescued the derelict small walled garden by thestable block in the early 1990s and turned it into a charming labourof love, full of herbaceous, annuals, a small pond and a homemadegreenhouse, almost overwhelmed with cascades of colour. Eddie diedin 2013 but his daughters are still looking after the garden andvisitors to House of Tongue are welcome to come by and have alook.

Langwell LodgeOne of northern Scotland’s outstanding gardens, the garden isreached via a long single track drive through the sheltered LangwellStrath and is far enough from the coast to suffer from spring frosts,which can singe the Rodgersia, hostas and other soft growth. Thewalled garden is crammed full of plants spilling out onto the paths

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House of Tongueand Eddie’s GardenTongue, by Lairg, Sutherland,IV27 4XH

Countess of Sutherland, SG and by appointment; ££40 miles north of Lairg; ½ milenorth of Tongue on A838 toDurness. Eddie’s garden is at theend of the main drive next to thefarm buildingsT: 07944427476 or01847 611378 Richard Rowe,head gardenerE: ginrik@btopenworld.com

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with abandon and is designed to peak when the family are inresidence in August, for the shooting season. The main herbaceousborders, with a focal point pond at the lower end, are backed withrepeat plantings of tall pink Filipendula. Long-time gardener FrancisHiggins has now retired after 25 years, and former National Trustgardener Peter McAnson and his wife Jenny now look after thegarden. Peter showed me the gravel paths he has put in which showoff the perennials better and he has created an unusual border ofthyme, hostas and backed with more giant Filipendula and a doubleparterre bordered by green-leaved autumn sedum and red lettuce andplanted with Perovskia. You don’t see that everyday! There are trainedfruit trees on the walls and box-edged rose beds and garden sectionscontaining vegetables and cutting borders are divided by yewhedging, with Tropaeolum growing through it. I noted an extensiveherb garden, a box-edged border of Shasta daisies and there is acollection of cacti and succulents in the greenhouse.

Lookout, TheKilmuir village is a charming seafront row of houses looking acrossthe Moray Firth to Nairn, Inverness and the Kessog Bridge, reachedalong a lovely beech-lined road. The village was threatened byruinous developers so the residents cleverly purchased thesurrounding woodland as a community to preserve the quality of theenvironment. The Veitches are natives of north-east England andmoved to Kilmuir in 1984. The land behind their house was essen-tially a wilderness of trees and weeds on a cliff face. With noparticular plan, they commenced from the bottom of the hill, devel-

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Langwell LodgeBerriedale, Caithness, KW7 6HD

Wellbeck EstatesSG 2 days in August and byappointment; ££Turn off the A9 just south ofBerriedale, signed to Aultbea and WagT: 01593 751278/751237E: macanson@hotmail.com www.scottishhighlandholidaylodge.co.uk

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oping a series of terraces and dry-stone retaining walls, creating oneof Scotland’s most vertical and unusual gardens, ‘only for the sure-footed’, as they put it. In the introduction to this book I mentionthe existential myth of Sysiphus rolling his stone endlessly uphill,only to see it roll back down again. In this case, the rocks werehauled up the hill in sacks as this garden is far too steep even for awheelbarrow. Thankfully, they did not roll back down again andDavid’s superhuman efforts to create a network of paths andretaining walls has created one of Scotland’s most unforgettablegardens. The top, where the best views of all can be enjoyed,contains a summer house, planting of grasses and bamboos, a tuliptree and some rhododendrons growing out of any available soil thatcan be found on the rock face. The top terrace overlooks a texture ofyellow, purple and green contrasting shrubs, a couple of ponds and acascade with water plants. There are several more buildings andsitting-out areas, each one with its own view over the firth and thegarden below, with vistas appearing in between the maturing treesand shrubs. The terrace level above the house has a mixture ofannuals and cottage garden flowers leading back via a climbing rosewalkway to the lowest level behind the house, where there is a smallsheltered courtyard, a raised bed vegetable area and a pretty cottagegarden. I really enjoyed this garden, probably the least wheelchairaccessible in the whole of Scotland, but even then, you could seeplenty from the bottom. Only ¾ acre in size, it seems much largerand is almost a vertical garden; you’ll not forget it once you’ve seenit. It is open most summer weekends and you’ll be offered tea andcakes too. The overly modest owners were not sure that it was goodenough for this book. I can assure you that it most certainly is!

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The LookoutKilmuir, Inverness, IV1 3ZG

David and Penny VeitchMay–September: Saturdays andSundays 11am–4pm; ££From south, leave A9 to N Kessock, 3rd left at round-about, left to Kilmuir (about 3miles). From Tore, leave A9 for N Kessock, follow signs toKilmuir. Garden is near far end of villageT: 01463 731489E: david@veitch.biz;penny@veitch.biz

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Maggie’s Centre, InvernessOne of a number of Maggie’s Centres for Cancer in Scotland, thisone is a striking curved green wooden building which looks like aboat unwinding itself, shedding its hull. The building, designed byarchitect David Page, is surrounded by echoes of the shape of thebuilding, in Charles Jencks-designed landforms, consisting of twopointed lozenge grass mounds with spirals of white gravel pathsleading to the top of each, and grass and gravel patterns on the flatground. Both building and mounds are inspired by cells in the‘versica’ shape: pointed ovals. This is a triumph of bold, simpledesign; bringing garden and building together as a ‘piece’.

NovarNovar house is an imposing 1760 mansion above the Cromarty Firthon an extensive sporting estate. The 5-acre walled garden, with agardener’s cottage set into the wall, is divided into two, with threeimpressive arches. A long border of Aruncus, Hosta and Alchemillaruns the width of the garden. The eastern half has an oval pool filledwith Koi carp, and a large lawn used for weddings, while the westernpart contains vegetables, trees and a croquet lawn. The extensivewater gardens to the west of the house were created by the presentowner’s father, who loved hydraulic engineering and was said to beable to make ‘water flow uphill’. A series of natural ponds are linkedwith waterfalls and steps, now somewhat over-shaded, but withimpressive Gunnera, Rodgersia, rhododendrons, maples and twofollies. There is also a lochan in the parkland. The Fyrish

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Maggie’s Centre, InvernessRaigmore Hospital, Old PerthRoad, Inverness, IV2 3UJ

Maggie’s CentresGarden accessible at all times.FreeOff the Old Perth Road at theedge of Raigmore HospitalT: 01463 706306E: highlands@maggiescentres.org

NovarEvanton, Ross-shire, IV16 9XL

Mr and Mrs Ronald MunroFergusonSG 1 day in June.Groups by appointment; ££A9, passing Storehouse of Foulis,then turn left on B817 toEvanton. Continue through thevillageT: 01349 831062E: enquiries@novarestate.co.ukwww.novarestate.co.uk

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Monument, a folly with several arches, on the hill behind Evanton,was built by Hector Munro in 1792 to commemorate one of hismilitary victories in India. It is quite a climb through pine woods toreach it.

Old Orchard, The‘The Old Orchard’ surrounds Cromarty’s oldest inhabited dwellinghouse, part of which dates back to c. 1690. The vast walled gardenoriginally belonged to Cromarty House, which lies to the south. Theold orchard is formed from the eastern section of the old garden andforms a handsome enclosure around the beautifully restored house.When the Dupars bought the property, the garden was a grassymeadow with a few old apple trees. They found metal apple labels onthe walls which had belonged to long dead trees and they decided toattempt to replant the historical apple collection. The spoil from

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The Old OrchardMiller Road, Cromarty, Black Isle, IV11 8XJ

Ken and Kristina DuparOpen to small groups byappointmentCromarty High Street eastwards,turn right, continue to the end ofShore Street, left to Miller Road,right onto the Causeway. Park inlay-by or car park above bowlinggreen on leftE: kdupar@ecosse.netwww.spanglefish.com/OldOrchard

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constructing a pond and patio was used to create a series ofundulating mounds and former Moray Parks boss Donald McBeanadvised the Dupars on the initial plantings. The garden is a fine mixof tasteful contemporary work such as the summerhouse and ponds,and more traditional plantings of conifers and heathers. Anoutstanding area is the dry-stone wall terrace and raised bed herbgarden on the slope between the house and the garages. The Duparshave created an idyll here and have clearly enjoyed the whole process,taking great pleasure in showing us round. They welcome groups ofvisitors by appointment.

Poyntzfield Herb NurseryThis is a long-established nursery, founded by Duncan Ross over 30years ago, long before the current vogue for herb growing. Duncan isprimarily concerned with the healing properties of the plants, theornamental properties are an added bonus. The catalogue lists up to400 herbs, grown under organic and biodynamic principles. Therange includes British natives and others from further afield,including India, Nepal and Sikkim and more recently from Japan(Kanpo tradition). Some of the very toxic plants such as Aconitumare used for homeopathic remedies, and herbal medicine workshopsare held at the nursery. Duncan Ross has produced three booklets:Growers’ Guide to Herb Gardening is a useful guide to herbs and theiruse, Herbs of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland details traditionaluses for native plants, many of which are on sale. The latest is Herbs

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Poyntzfield Herb NurseryNear Balblair, Black Isle, Dingwall,Ross and Cromarty, IV7 8LX

Duncan Ross1 March–30 September:Monday–Saturday 1–5pm; May–August also Sunday 1–5pmB9163 to Cromarty, turn rightafter junction with the B9160 justbefore JemimavilleT: 01381 610352E: info@poyntzfieldherbs.co.ukwww.poyntzfieldherbs.co.uk

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of the Himalaya and India and follows Duncan’s work collectingherbs in Asia. Mail order operates all year round and they sell bothsmall plants and seeds. The walled garden of the imposing pinkPoyntzfield House is divided into sections by yew hedges andcontains impressive long beds containing the stock plants of theherbs sold by the nursery. This is the key place of pilgrimage inScotland for anyone interested in herbs.

Reelig GlenMostly planted by James Baillie Fraser and known as the ‘tall treeswalk’, this woodland contains Dughall Mor, a 64m Douglas fir, thetallest tree in Britain (and possibly the tallest in Europe), which isone of a group of trees over 55m tall. Other fine trees include thebeech glade planted in 1870, known as the ‘Cathedral’. There aregreat views from the viewpoint off the higher path and there is anunusual bridge and grotto at the top end of the forest trail.

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Reelig GlenMoniack, Beauly, Inverness, IV5 7PQ

Forestry Commission1 mile off the A862 Inverness–Beauly road, approx. 8 miles westof Inverness. Leave the A862,signposted Moniack and Clunes;freeBus service to the Old North Innon A862T: 01463 791575www.forestry.gov.uk

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SandsideThis garden demonstrates what a walled garden and a good shelterbelt of trees will allow to be grown, even on the north coast ofScotland, where 100 mile an hour winds are not uncommon. TheMinters moved here in 1991 and saved the garden, which had beenabandoned and become a wilderness. The low-walled sunken garden(to keep it out of the wind) is well designed around two circularlawns, with small beds in the centre. Around these are wide herba-ceous borders, with further beds against the walls. Bedding is used tofill in and create bold drifts of colour. The ground rises outside thegarden, allowing a good vantage point from which to appreciate thedesign. From the house, there are views out towards Orkney.Escallonia is used here as an ornamental and effective windbreak.

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SandsideReay, Sutherland, KW14 7DF

Mr and Mrs Geoffrey MinterBy AppointmentAlong the A836, approx. 10 mileswest of Thurso, just west of theDounreay Nuclear Power StationT: 01847 811540

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WoodviewWhen I visited this garden in August 2013, I felt that I’d just walkedinto a collection of parts of RHS show gardens. It turned out thatWoodview was to be judged the following day by Carole Baxter forthe Inverness Courier Garden of the Year, and that Lynda has takeninspiration for her garden from her many visits to Chelsea. She’s wonthe garden title before, and I certainly expected her to win again.Lynda is a professional gardener and garden designer and uses hergarden to inspire clients, who need to be warned just how manyhours go into keeping a garden to this level. The garden is designedto reach a peak in August, with some of Lynda’s favourite plants:lilies and dahlias. The various garden sections include a rectangularpool with dyed black water, oriental features, a pergola clad withgolden hop, raised vegetable beds, a grass chair and a patio with acheckerboard effect including black, white and grass squares. I don’tthink I have ever seen so many ideas crammed into such a small area,not more than ⅓ of an acre; the effect is almost overwhelming, but itis also an inspiration, showing how much can be achieved in a smallspace. Definitely worth a visit on SGS open days in August.

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WoodviewHighfield, Muir of Ord, Inverness-shire, IV6 7UL

Lynda MacleodAugust 1 day SG, and groups byappointment; ££Follow signs to Ord Distillery onthe A832 Muir of Ord toMarybank. House oppositeClashwood Forest Walk. Parking in ClashwoodT: 01463 871928;M: 07738 574116E: lynwoodview@yahoo.co.uk

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Orkney

Though Orkney does not have any famousmust-see gardens, it does have some quirkyand charming places to go. I noted a few moregardens that could open, perhaps in groups orvillages, as I drove round in summer 2013, notleast of which was the amazing roadsiderockery just west of Orphir. Botanist the lateElaine Bullard MBE has probably had themost influence on Orkney gardens in herwork on native plants, her journalism and inproviding invaluable advice on gardening inOrkney’s wet and windy climate; she died in2011, aged 96. She famously conducted herresearch into Orkney’s flora in her three-wheeler Reliant Robin.

Trumland House,Rousay, Orkney

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