The Gardens of the North-East – Pitmedden, Drum and Crathes
A day by car, from Aberdeen and back.
The route
Aberdeenshire has some fine walled gardens, and this is a day out from Aberdeen among three of them, each quite unlike the others.
North of the city, near Ellon, the walled garden at Pitmedden has been laid out again in the formal style of the 1600s, all clipped hedging and summer bedding. Down on Deeside, beyond Peterculter, Drum keeps a walled garden of old roses, with an ancient oak wood nearby, and at Crathes, just short of Banchory, great yew hedges divide a walled garden into rooms of colour. All of them are cared for by the National Trust for Scotland, and on this day the gardens come first and the castles wait for another visit. It's about 67 miles in all, with two and a half hours at the wheel, and it ends back in Aberdeen in good time for dinner.
The day
Gardens
A day among flowers, north of Aberdeen in the morning and down on Deeside in the afternoon. It begins on the terrace above Pitmedden's parterres, wanders through Drum's old roses after lunch and finishes among the yew hedges of Crathes, with the drive home along the Dee.
2 hr 29 min at the wheelAbout 67 miles
Pitmedden Garden
An attraction
It's 35 minutes' drive north from Aberdeen to Pitmedden Garden, by the village of the same name. Sir Alexander Seton made a garden here in 1675, and in the last century its parterres were laid out again, three of them from a 1647 plan of Holyrood. Look down on them from the terrace first: almost six miles of clipped hedging in all, the beds filled with summer bedding. Lunch is in the garden's own tearoom, with soups, sandwiches and cakes, some made from what grows here. The garden usually opens Thursday to Monday, from 10.30am.
52 min by car
Drum Castle
An attraction
Drive 52 minutes south round Aberdeen by the bypass and west on the A93 to Drum Castle. Its walled garden has a ticket of its own and holds the Garden of Historic Roses, from the roses of the 1600s to the 1900s. June and July are the time to see them, as some flower only once. The garden usually opens daily from June to August, otherwise Thursday to Monday. Walk on into the Old Wood, which adjoins the castle grounds. The house is by guided tour only, the last usually at 3.15pm.
20 min by car
Crathes Castle
An attraction
It's 20 minutes' drive west along the A93 to Crathes Castle, just short of Banchory, and there's a garden-only ticket here too. Below the castle, tall clipped yews and hedges divide the walled garden into eight rooms. Sir James Burnett and his wife Sybil shaped most of them in the 20th century, with topiary in one and long borders heavy with flowers in the next. Give it an hour and a quarter. It usually closes at 5pm, so leave by a quarter to five for the 42 minutes home.
If it rains
Each garden has a roof close by. At Pitmedden, walk the hornbeam avenue to the Museum of Farming Life, and take lunch indoors at the tearoom. At Drum, take the full ticket and a guided tour of the house in place of a long walk in the Old Wood, the last tour usually at 3.15pm. At Crathes, the full ticket takes you inside the castle, with last entry usually at 4.15pm. In a downpour, the David Welch Winter Gardens in Duthie Park, on the Dee in Aberdeen, are glasshouses of plants from round the world, usually open daily from 10.30am to 5pm in summer. They close too early to call in on the way home, so take them in place of the last garden.
Worth a detour
- The Mains of Drum
The Mains of Drum is a family-run garden centre on the A93, a short way before the turn to Drum, with plants, gifts and a food hall. It opens every day, 9am to 5pm, and it adds about 5 minutes at the wheel and as long as you spend among the plants, which comes out of the time for the Old Wood.
- Milton of Crathes
Milton of Crathes is a courtyard of independent shops, the Yoke among them, and a gallery in a restored steading, beside the old station of the Royal Deeside Railway. It is about a kilometre before Crathes on the A93, so call in on the way to the garden, not on the way home: Maison Castanié, a French-inspired deli, is there now and usually opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm. It adds about 3 minutes at the wheel, and the time there comes out of Crathes. Each business keeps its own hours, and the railway runs on set days, so check before going.
Where to eat
AberdeenAberdamA restaurant
AberdeenMaggie’s GrillA restaurant
CrathesCafé 1702 at Crathes CastleA café
AberdeenGio's by La LombardaA restaurant
AberdeenMoonfish CaféA restaurant
AberdeenContour CafeA café
AberdeenThe Pig's WingsA restaurant
AberdeenNinety-NineA restaurant
AberdeenMa Cameron'sA restaurant
AberdeenThe Tippling HouseA restaurant
AberdeenBooks & BeansA café
AberdeenCafé BohemeA restaurant
Photographs by pitmeddengarden; Scott McCall via Google