The Walled Garden at Crathes – Yew Hedges and Lunch
A few hours.
The route
The walled garden below Crathes Castle is a joy to wander, a run of garden rooms divided by great clipped yew hedges, with topiary in one and long, flower-heavy borders in the next.
Most of it is step-free, and the café by the car park serves a light lunch and homemade cakes. It's a gentle few hours on Deeside.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The day
Crathes
A morning among the hedges and borders of a much-loved walled garden, mostly on level paths, with lunch a few steps from the car.
About two and a half hours
Crathes Castle Walled Garden
An attraction
Crathes Castle is on the A93 just east of Banchory. Park in the castle's pay car park, free for National Trust for Scotland members, and buy a garden-only ticket in the shop, which costs less than the castle ticket. Below the castle, tall yew hedges planted in 1702 divide the walled garden into eight rooms, with topiary in one and deep herbaceous borders in the next. Sir James and Lady Sybil Burnett shaped most of them in the 20th century. Give it an hour and a quarter. Most of the walled garden is step-free, and only assistance dogs may go in, though dogs are welcome on the rest of the estate. Crathes usually opens every day from 10am, until 5pm from April to October and until 4pm in winter, and only Thursday to Sunday in January.
Café 1702 at Crathes Castle
Lunch
Walk back up to Café 1702 by the car park for a light lunch and homemade cakes. It keeps the castle's hours: 10am to 5pm every day from April to October, and 10am to 4pm over the winter, with Thursday to Sunday only in January. There's no need to book. Dogs are welcome in the café, and there's a play park beside it.
If it rains
In rain, take the full ticket and see inside the castle, with its painted ceilings, then lunch at Café 1702; last entry to the castle is usually 4.15pm.
