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Highland Summer Gardens

5 days | £3850 per person | 24-28 June 24

Private Scottish Gardens of Distinction

An exclusive tour hosted by Charles Fox

and led by Sophie Piebenga

Over the past few years, some of the big names in landscape design have found their way up to the Highlands of Scotland, helping to put this area firmly on the horticultural map. Tom Stuart-Smith has laid out an extensive garden at Aldourie Castle on Loch Ness while Arne Maynard has re-designed the huge walled garden at Gordon Castle. At Pitmedden, Chris Beardshaw has given one of the historic parterres a 21st-century, more sustainable planting. Over at the West coast, plantsman Will Soos is working wonders, introducing South African flora to his croft garden while Inverewe Gardens famously exploits its coastal location, influenced by the Gulf Stream. All these gardens are set against the backdrop of the dramatic Scottish Highlands with views towards the mountains, and out over loch and sea. The tour host will be Charles Fox of Glendurgan, well-acquainted with the flora of these Gulf Stream-influenced locations. Sophie Piebenga, a highly experienced tour leader and well-known to many Boxwood travellers, will lead the tour. We will be based at the Culloden House Hotel near Inverness which boasts its own, huge walled garden, with wide, well-planted, colourful shrub borders.

Day to day Itinerary

Day 1

Starting at Inverness airport, we travel the short distance to Aldourie Castle, situated on the Northern shores of Loch Ness for a unique, exclusive visit. After a delicious lunch in the beautifully restored Steadings, we head for the extensive gardens which were recently laid out by the celebrated garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith. This involved making a completely new garden around the baronial castle overlooking the loch, restoring the 1.5-acre kitchen garden and replanting a dell garden. The garden is enhanced by various features designed by architect Ptolemy Dean, all beautifully detailed. The whole is immaculately maintained by Head Gardener Eliott Forsyth and his team. The surrounding parkland, part of the 500-acre estate, contains extensive meadows. We travel to nearby Culloden House Hotel with time to settle in before dinner.

Day 2

Today we travel up the Northeast coast to Dunrobin Castle, one of Scotland’s great houses and home to the Dukes of Sutherland. The gardens below the castle were laid out in 1850 by the architect Sir Charles Barry and contain well-planted formal parterres with extensive views out over the Moray Firth. There will be an opportunity to visit the castle too before we head south again, to the private home of self-taught garden designer JJ Gladwin, Old Allangrange.

After a light lunch we explore the 3-acre ornamental garden that surround the house. The 5-acre organic vegetable garden is cultivated on the no-dig principle, along with agroforestry planting techniques and a forest garden, striving for wildlife, productivity and beauty. Return to Culloden House Hotel for dinner.

Day 3

In 2021, Gordon Castle Walled Garden was voted Historic House's Garden of the Year – and with good reason. Some years previous this 8-acre historic walled garden was re-designed by Arne Maynard at the request of its owners, Angus and Zara Gordon Lennox. Today the garden produces an abundance of fruit and vegetables, as well as cut flowers, herbs and essential oils – all of which form the basis of a unique range of products with the Gordon Castle Estate label. Running along the full length of the garden are six ornamental borders while beautiful, sinuous grass mounds provide a modern element. We will have lunch in the thriving café within the garden, feasting on its produce.

The Renaissance garden at Pitmedden dates from 1675 and was faithfully re-created in the 1950s, with large floral parterres, formal hedging and topiary. More recently, the well-known garden designer Chris Beardshaw has given the top parterres a more naturalistic and sustainable design with a biodiverse, species-rich meadow. Throughout the garden one can find modern stone sculptures by the renowned artist John Maine RA. Return to Culloden House Hotel for dinner.

Day 4

Today we travel the route west which takes us through wonderful Highland scenery. Our first stop is a secluded private house at the base of the mountains where the ancient walled garden contains exciting planting in new borders, centred around one of the oldest yew trees in Scotland. The roses will be coming into their own while a recently restored Victorian glasshouse provides additional interest. A short distance away is the extraordinary garden belonging to plantsman Will Soos and Sue Pomery, developed from their traditional croft. Here they have created a rich mix of herbaceous borders, trees and shrubs, vegetables, drystone wall planting, and South African and mediterranean plants – all on an exposed site with the dramatic backdrop of mountain and sea loch. Lunch will be at Inverewe Garden, the one-time home of author Osgood MacKenzie (1842-1922) and his daughter Mair Sawyer. MacKenzie created his garden amid a barren wilderness on the Atlantic coast. At the same latitude as Moscow and Hudson Bay, Inverewe benefits from a unique garden microclimate thanks to the effects of the Gulf Stream. Return to Culloden House Hotel for dinner.

Day 5

A short distance from the hotel is Cawdor Castle, the ancestral home of the Earls of Cawdor. The castle is built around a 15th-century tower-house although the remains of a sacred holly tree at its base suggest an even earlier date. The formal flower garden was laid out c.1710 and today holds a wealth of well-tended herbaceous plants. The original walled kitchen garden was remodelled in 1981 and now includes a unique sculptural maze containing over 1200 holly plants. The Wild Garden across the river Nairn sports rare species from Tibet, planted in the 1960s by Jack Cawdor, the 5th Earl. We finish our tour with a special lunch in the 400-year old walled garden of the Georgian Boath House before returning to Inverness airport.

Culloden House Hotel

Per Person: £3850

Single Supp: £400

Deposit: £500

Dates:

24 to 28 June 2024

Duration:

4 nights / 5 days

Your Tour Includes:

The price includes four nights at Culloden House Hotel with all breakfasts plus evening meals with local wines included, and four lunches as stated in the itinerary
Private coach transfers and excursions
Services of the Tour Host and Tour Manager Detailed programme of garden notes
Entrance to all sites listed in the programme

Tour Lecturers

Charles Fox

Charles Fox comes from a long line of gardeners who are responsible for the creation of at least three remarkable Cornish gardens: Penjerrick, Trebah and Glenburgan. In the early 1990s Charles qualified twice as a garden designer, at Kew Gardens with Merit. Since that time he has led many garden tours in the south west, and having lived in Cornwall most of his life is well qualified to talk about the county’s history. He has written one book about Glendurgan, the property where he and his family now live, and which was given to the National Trust in 1962.

Sophie Piebenga

Born in The Netherlands and based in the Cotswolds, our expert Sophie Piebenga has lived most of her life in the UK. Trained with the National Trust and qualified at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, all whilst working as head gardener of a private estate, Sophie quickly developed a particular interest in the conservation of historic gardens. This eventually led to a doctoral study at the University of York, researching the work of the early Victorian landscape gardener, William Sawrey Gilpin. Sophie has since worked freelance, mostly in the field of historic landscape conservation, and, for the last 25 years, has regularly led Boxwood tours around the UK and to Ireland, France, Spain and The Netherlands.

Hotel: Culloden House Hotel