Turning Toward the Light: Scotland Gardens

(This is the first in a series of photo essays about gardens I visited on my trip to Scotland last August.)

Culzean Castle is a lovely estate on the west coast of Scotland, southwest of Glasgow. The current stately home was designed by Robert Adam for the tenth Earl of Cassillis in the late 18th century, and is now operated by the National Trust for Scotland.

This picture shows just a small part of the 4-sided Home Farm that now houses the visitor center, gift shop, and lunchroom.

Then you take a short walk and approach the grand house through this ruined arch (one of those silly 18th-century follies that were actually built as a ruin).

We toured the inside of the house, but were not allowed to take pictures inside. We avoided the formal tour group, which was just too big and crowded, and made our own way around. I particularly remember the lovely central staircase, and the bright circular salon with its ocean views. There was also an exhibit in honor of President Eisenhower and his connection with Culzean; the top floor of the castle was gifted to President Eisenhower during his lifetime as a thank-you for his war leadership, and he visited several time over the years. Now the top floor has a number of very luxurious bed and breakfast suites - that would be a great place to stay, if a bit expensive.

There was quite a lovely formal garden with palm trees and a big fountain along the back of the castle.

I really enjoyed my first chance to enjoy viewing flowers.

Alex took a lot of lovely closeup pictures of the exotic flowers.

Culzean is set in extensive grounds, and many people visit the castle just to enjoy the country park. There was a long walk along the cliff edge with great views of the ocean, back to the castle, and to sea birds down on the rocks. That building down at the shore below the castle used to be the laundry house, and the small round turreted building is the boat house.

At the far end of the cliff path, we found a picnic area with a huge duck pond, aviary, and ice cream stand. We indulged in the ice cream, which was great, and one of the few things we found that was cheaper in Scotland than in the U.S. (must be all those cows).

And we ran into more follies here. There was a Chinese-style pagoda, and then further back in the woods, the Cat Gates, topped with lounging felines.

After walking for quite a ways back through the woods, we encountered a huge walled garden with a greenhouse, grotto rock garden, and lovely perennial borders.

One of the striking flowers I recognized here was one that we have in bloom at Garden in the Woods in Massachusetts, the Desert Five-Spot, a native North American plant of the western deserts.

At this point, after so much walking, my legs were getting really sore, so I spent a little time sitting on this garden bench, enjoying the sun which had finally come out. Alex took pity on me, and volunteered to hike back to the car park and bring the car back to pick me up.

On his way back, he stopped to explore this lovely Camelia House, and the red deer park across the way. I settled for seeing them from the car as we drove out. I was just to beat at that point to walk any more.