The Scottish Highlands can seem to horticulturalists to be a bleak place. The landscape is characterised by low, tough plants such as heathers; and the trees, when not in huge plantations of conifers, are often bent and twisted by the wind. The climate and the landscape may not appear to conspire to support the tender and the exotic – but there are Highland gardens where tender loving care has provided gardens to amuse and surprise.
Inverewe Gardens, Poolewe
The National Trust for Scotland’s gardens at the tiny hamlet of Poolewe lie on the mild west coast of Scotland. On a south-facing coastal site where the waters are warmed by the Gulf Stream, the gardens were created on a bleak headland in the middle of the nineteenth century and over time has Inverewe has become one of Scotland’s favourite and most-visited gardens.
Benefiting from the unexpectedly mild climate, Inverewe is principally a woodland garden – but the more traditional trees are supplemented by palm trees and eucalyptus. A walled garden with herbaceous borders and a collection of showy rhododendrons maintain interest through the year. Stunning views of Loch Torridon and the coast lie to the south and west.
The gardens are open all year (opening times vary but are shorter in winter: check the NTS website for details). Adult admission charge for 2010 is £8 but there are concessions, and NTS members are admitted free. The gardens have a shop with plant sales and light refreshments are available.
Abriachan, the Garden on Loch Ness
Abriachan Gardens is set on the northern shore of Loch Ness on one of Scotland’s primary tourist routes. On a steep south-facing slope, the garden offers a range of stunning views towards the Monadhliath Mountains. Set among extensive woodland, the garden's own walks link into those of the Abriachan Forest Trust, allowing visitors easy access to the hills.
Recommended by the Royal Horticultural Society as one of the UK’s six most exotic gardens, Abriachan offers a range of bright and unusual plants which are anything but the traditional Scottish flora. Plants grown are inspired by those native to places where the owners have lived – osteospermums from South Africa grow alongside flaxes from New Zealand and the speciality, auriculas. Adult admission is £2 and RHS members are admitted free of charge.
Cawdor Castle Gardens
Cawdor Castle, a fourteenth-century Scottish tower house a few miles west of Inverness, is perhaps best known for its association with Shakespeare’s tragic villain Macbeth. The castle itself remains a popular family home and visitor attraction – but for the horticulturalist it offers the opportunity to visit not one but three gardens.
The walled garden is the oldest of the three, dating from the seventeenth century. It was a traditional kitchen garden and although today it includes a holly maze, knot garden and thistle garden, it still retains an orchard. A hundred years younger, the flower garden, with its roses and lavender, was laid out to be pleasant on the eye; while the wild garden is the most recent, developed in the 1960s with rhododendrons, azaleas and daffodils in spring.
As part of one of the area’s major visitor attractions, Cawdor offers an all-inclusive ticket for £8.30 (adult); but there is a ticket for gardens and grounds only, for £4.50. The gardens are open only from 1 May- 3rd October (2010) daily from 10-5.30. There is a gift shop (no plants for sale) and refreshments are available.
Dunbeath Castle
Another surprise is at Dunbeath Castle, in Caithness on the far north-east of Scotland on the way to John O’Groats. The gardens are open to the public by appointment only (parties are accepted): admission is £4 and there is no shop or tea room. Set in the grounds of the fourteenth century castle, they have been redesigned several times, most recently by the designer Xa Tolemache in 1998.
The gardens are traditional in style, with fruit, flowers, vegetables and shrubs. It is notable for its extensive herbaceous borders, its roses and honeysuckle and two long fuschia hedges. Even in such a northerly location, the sheltered walled garden supports figs and apricots – fruits not normally associated with Scotland.
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