Castle Kennedy – A Garden Morning and Tea at Knockinaam
A day.
The route
Castle Kennedy's gardens grew up round a burnt-out castle in the 1700s, on a neck of land between two lochs, and their avenues and ponds make for a gentle, unhurried morning.
Then the road crosses to the coast near Portpatrick, to Knockinaam Lodge, a 19th-century country house beside its own cove, for afternoon tea.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Book Afternoon tea at Knockinaam Lodge
Book afternoon tea at Knockinaam Lodge ahead, by phone on 01776 810471 or online, and mention any allergies when you do.
The day
Galloway
A slow day for anyone who loves a good garden and an afternoon tea. The morning is spent on the avenues by the lochs, round the old castle's ruin. Then it's west to the coast for a long, lazy tea by the sea.
About five hours
Castle Kennedy Gardens
The gardens are signed from the A75 in Castle Kennedy village, about five miles east of Stranraer. After the old castle burned in 1716, the 2nd Earl of Stair made a garden round its ruin, and in the 1730s soldiers of the Royal Scots Greys and the Inniskilling Fusiliers shaped its avenues, mounds and terraces. Walk the long mound called the Giant's Grave, looking over the Black Loch, and the canal joining the two lochs, with cabbage palms along one end, and see the two-acre Round Pond. The ruin is seen from outside. The tea room does barista coffee, light lunches and home baking.
31 min by car
Knockinaam Lodge
Afternoon tea
Knockinaam Lodge is 31 minutes' drive west, past Stranraer, three miles from Portpatrick. Afternoon tea brings scones, small cakes and pastries, seasonal sandwiches and a savoury that changes daily, with tea or coffee, or a glass of Prosecco or Champagne for a little more. Churchill and Eisenhower met here as they prepared for the D-Day landings, and the lodge's 30 acres of grounds run down to the beach.
If it rains
The gardens are all outdoors and the ground can be wet underfoot, so come dressed for it; the tea room by the entrance is the place to shelter. Afternoon tea at Knockinaam is indoors.
Photographs by Magda L, Phil Sayers and Knockinaam Lodge Hotel & Restaurant via Google