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Published: September 15th 2021
Gabby the motorhome has squeezed herself into a space on the car park at Threave Castle Gardens the home of a school of horticulture for Scotland. We found a spot right up against the hedge . Admittedly it was two spaces but it made sense to park larger vehicles out of the way there . However the car owners thought differently. Although there were plenty of car size spaces they seemed to prefer the side we were on . Frustrating because they seem to have little idea of how to think of motorhomes and park selfishly. The weather was still dreek and the rain fell steadily. Not the best of weathers to see a garden which was laid mostly to grass . Still it had to be done .. We had seen a castle , an abbey, visited a town and seen the sea . All that was left was a garden.
Was it sensible to visit a garden at this time of year ? Debateable . With a fair wind behind it late summer /early Autumn can be lovely times in a garden. The weather is still warm enough for the Michaelmus Daisies to flower,. The late
Dahlias and Chrysanthemums are usually in bloom and the trees might have taken on their Autumn colour . Threave Castle Gardens now owned by the National Trust for Scotland should provide us with a flowery spectacle. I had read that the garden was based on a series of rooms so I expected something on the lines of Sissenhurst in Kent. How wrong can you be?
We walked up to the entrance hall and realised that we should have come earlier and had lunch here. National Trust properties always have welcoming restaurants and interesting menus . We had missed a trick here . The restaurant was packed . Was this because everyone loved that taste of freedom to get out before the Scottish Government close down the country again for a circuit breaker in October ? Was it because our small isle is packed out with visitors who normally would be on the Costas or abroad in their motorhomes ? We showed our cards but unlike Dundrennan the lady on the till just glanced at them without asking is to provide addresses for track and trace .
The gardens were mainly laid out to grass
and the paths lead all different ways . Mature trees lined the paths and some were clothed in rich bronze leaves. There was a Secret Garden, accessible via a laburnum arch; a peat garden; a rock garden; a rose garden; a woodland garden and the pond and waterfall. The Discovery Garden is designed to inspire children with its mown grass paths leading through wild flower meadows.eaves . Apart from the bronze there was little colour . Perhaps in Spring there would be snowdrops, daffodils or bluebells . As an Autumn garden so far it felt sparse compared to many others we had seen. Our path led us to the "castle " which was a rather grand sandstone baronial scottish pile . The gardens were originally established alongside Threave House which was built in 1872 on rising land to the east of the valley of the River Dee. It had commanding excellent views west to the hills of Galloway Threave House was built by William Gordon, a successful Lverpool businessman who had bought the Threave Estate as a summer home for his extensive family in 1867. He preferred this location for the house to the lower parts of the estate extending
to the River Dee and including Threave Island and Threave Castle Threave Castle now belonged to the equivalent of Cadw and whilst it would have been free for us to visit it was again sadly closed . A victim of Covid . Threave House and its entire estate was passed to the National Trust for Scotland by William's bachelor grandson, Major Alan Gordon, in 1948. The site covers over 24 hectares of garden .
We left the grand house and walked down the sloping wooded parkland . We could hear water . The water took some finding hidden away behind large rhubarb like leaves, massive bamboos and ornamental grasses . Above the waterfall was a red Japanese Bridge . The water ran into a large pond full of pink water lilies . The first colour we had seen in the garden . Large stones were carved on one side with a horse . Slate had been fashioned into large globes . Sadly the last roses of summer were long gone . Here and there were yellow Rudbeckia, red and white perenniel Lobelia but little else to catch our eye .
The walled garden was
filled half with vegetable and fruit and the other side a long border full of the mauve spikes of the Cardoons . Yellow and cream Cardoons were unusual and very beautiful. Most the summer bedding had gone over sadly . A large glasshouse filled part of the walled garden . Not a Paxton massive glasshouse just one that once housed the prized plants from the house and now held a lovely display of succulents, ferns and almost exotic begonias . They dripped from their pots. At the other side of the glasshouse we saw him . A old gardener sitting on a wall . His head bent and he looked deep in thought . His hair covered by an old hat . He wore well worn blue denim bib and braces and his gardening shoes were caked with dirt . His grey flannel shirt and Covid mask the only colour we could see . He never looked up as we approached . He seemed to thinking about what to plant. He was not a man at all . As we got closer we could see he was an statue if you could call him that . He was so well made he looked real and we felt we could almost talk to him and he would tell us how long he had sat there , who he had seen that day and what his plans were . He looked to be so knowledgeable I wanted to ask him to design my garden for me . I was sure he had ideas that I could never think of .
We left our gardener to his thoughts and headed back to Gabby . We had a plan for the night . A new initiative to Scotland . So many travellers had made their way to the NC500 that the country had to think of alternatives . More routes and more stopovers . The Heart 200 had been established and The Forestry Commision together with CamPra had set up a series of overnight stops on their land . The one we had chosen was available to 7 motorhomes . The cost £6 per overnight . One night only . What a brilliant idea . We were keen to see what the set up was and hoped that it would not be abused and become not a trial but a permanent stopover .
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Jackie
non-member comment
Gardener
I was hoping that you had put a photo of the gardener on your blog. Now I feel that we ought to go and see him ourselves!!! lol!! Have a wonderful time! I think I've done a blog on Scotland as we were up there for a month in 2011 I think?!