Logan Botanic Garden – Palms and Tree Ferns in the Rhins
A few hours.
The route
Logan Botanic Garden sits near the southern end of the Rhins of Galloway, where the warm waters of the Gulf Stream let palms, tree ferns, eucalyptus and giant gunnera grow outdoors in Scotland.
A walled garden with a lily pond, a glasshouse of tender South African plants and the Potting Shed café make a gentle few hours of it. It's a lovely morning for garden lovers and grandparents, with much of it on level gravel paths.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The day
Port Logan
Palms and tree ferns in the mild air of the Rhins, a lily pond in the walled garden, and soup in the Potting Shed.
About two hours
Logan Botanic Garden
An attraction
Logan Botanic Garden is signed off the B7065 near Port Logan, with a car park at the entrance. It opens every day from 1 March to 31 October, 10am to 5pm, and from 1 to 15 November, 10am to 4pm; from 16 November it shuts for the winter. Entry is £12 for adults with a Gift Aid donation, or £10.80 without, and £10 for concessions, and children aged 15 and under go free, at the time of writing. Much of the garden is flat compacted gravel, with a marked route for wheelchairs and mobility scooters; the upper paths are steep and stepped. Two wheelchairs and a mobility scooter can be borrowed free by ringing 01776 860231 ahead. Find the palms and tree ferns, the giant gunnera, the Walled Garden with its fish pond and water lilies, and the Logan Conservatory's South African plants. Only assistance dogs may come in. The Potting Shed café is open to everyone from September to 15 November, 10.30am to 4pm (3pm in November), with soups, sandwiches and home baking; from April to August it serves garden visitors only. There are accessible toilets near the entrance.
If it rains
The Logan Conservatory and the Potting Shed give shelter, but most of the garden is outdoors; on a wet day see the Walled Garden and the glasshouse, then warm up in the café.
Photographs by Alison Tate and Amanda C via Google