In a Scottish country garden

The Scottish Gardener is a new book from Suki Urquhart. Here are some extracts about private gardens, with pictures by Ray Cox

Garden lovers visiting Scotland will quickly find the many and varied gardens that are open to the public daily.

What they may not realise is that every week (except in deepest winter) there are many private gardens that hold open days via 'Scotland's Gardens Scheme'.

Open for charity, they offer a glimpse of how the gardeners of Scotland go about their craft.

In my book The Scottish Gardener (Birlinn October 2005) many of the gardens described open under the scheme. I have chosen three that combine history with horticulture.

The first is Wemyss Castle in Fife. Wemyss means 'cave' and was named for the network of caves on the beaches below. It was first built in 1240, burnt by Edward I and re-built in the 14th century. Macky describes his visit there in 1723: "About a mile from Dyzart, still on the sea coast, is the Castle of Weems, the Seat of that ancient family, that is built upon an eminence, and with awful look hath a commanding prospect of the firth, in East Louthian, to the South to the bass (rock), to the West: its gardens and spacious park run to the North. This palace is above 200 foot front to the South, with a terrace on the top of the rock, as at Windsor; and, like it being of free-stone and white, is seen at a very great distance. It hath two wings to the North, and a great area between the castle and the gardens, which is the entry into the house."

When Charlotte and Michael Wemyss inherited the estate it looked much the same but the five and a half acres ...

To read the rest of this article you can do any of the following.

• By : Ray Cox
• In : Outdoor Scotland
• Issue : 23
• Page : 28
• Words : 1,650