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The walled garden at Cambo, deep borders of salvias, grasses and orange achillea along a path.
Fife

Cambo Gardens

A walled garden and woodland estate near Kingsbarns in Fife, in the same family for over 300 years, famous for its snowdrops and its borders.

Welcome

Cambo is a walled garden and woodland estate on the A917 near Kingsbarns, on the Fife coast, and it has been in the Erskine family for more than three hundred years.

The walled garden covers two and a half acres and dates from the 1800s, and from August its double herbaceous borders reach their flowering peak in rich reds, purples and blues.

Cambo is famous for its snowdrops, a Plant Heritage national collection, with drifts of them through the woods down to the sea during the Scottish Snowdrop Festival, from late January to mid-March. The estate has about seventy acres of woodland, with paths that link to the Fife Coastal Path. The Stables Visitor Centre has a heritage exhibition, a shop and a vegetarian café, and entry to it is free. Dogs are welcome throughout, on leads on the garden paths.

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The Daily for 11 November, from Scotland with love. The broken stone walls of a lochside castle rise from a small tree-covered island, autumn foliage glowing orange against the dark water and forested hillside beyond.
Not farSteampunk CoffeeA coffee roastery and coffee bar in an old joinery warehouse in North Berwick, roasting single-origin coffees on site, open every day.16 milesSee itSteampunk Coffee

Before you go

Open every day from 10am.

Garden tickets can be bought on arrival at the shop or booked online, and entry to the Stables Visitor Centre and café is free.

Where
Cambo Gardens and The Stables Visitor Centre, Kingsbarns, St Andrews KY16 8QD, on the A917. The entrance is by the gateposts with large signs, not through Cambo Farm.
Open
The Stables Visitor Centre, café and shop open daily from 10am. It closes at 5pm, with last entry to the garden at 4.30pm, and from November to January it closes at 4pm.
Price
Gardens and woodland walks £7.95 (£8.75 with Gift Aid); carers and under 16s are free. Entry to the Stables Visitor Centre, café, Tack Room shop, play area and the Glingbobs woodland trail is free. RHS members are admitted free on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Booking
Tickets can be bought on arrival in the shop, or booked in advance online by choosing a date and time on the What's On page.
Parking
Accessible parking is next to the Stables Visitor Centre.
Dogs
Dog friendly everywhere, including the café. Dogs should be on leads on the garden paths and in the visitor centre.
Getting there
The 95 bus between St Andrews and Leven passes the end of the drive, and it is a half-mile walk through the woodland to the Stables Visitor Centre.
Access
The Stables Visitor Centre is fully accessible, with two accessible toilets. The garden paths are wheelchair and buggy friendly; the woodland paths vary in surface, with steps in parts.
Food
The café serves vegetarian and vegan food, seven days a week from 10am to 3pm: soups, cheese scones, sandwiches, salads and sweet treats.

Opening hours

Monday
10am–4pm
Tuesday
10am–4pm
Wednesday
10am–4pm
Thursday
10am–4pm
Friday
10am–4pm
Saturday
10am–4pm
Sunday
10am–4pm

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Where it is

On the A917 by Kingsbarns, on the east coast of Fife, with the entrance by the signed gateposts, KY16 8QD.

Close byKingsbarns.
  1. The wide golden sand of Kingsbarns Beach at low tide under a blue sky with big white clouds, the dunes and woods curving away along the shore.Kingsbarns Beach1 mile as the crow flies
  2. The dining room at the Shoregate in Crail, with wooden tables and wishbone chairs on a herringbone floor and big windows onto the street.The Shoregate2 miles as the crow flies
  3. CrailCrailThe most easterly village of the East Neuk of Fife, an ancient royal burgh with a tiny stone harbour, a Dutch-style tolbooth and fresh lobster in season.2 miles 5 min by road
  4. Weathered face carved into red sandstone rock, surrounded by autumn woodlandDunino DenA wooded glen behind Dunino church, south of St Andrews, with a stair cut into the rock, carvings in the rock faces and ribbons tied in the trees.6 miles 10 min by road
  5. St AndrewsSt AndrewsA town on the Fife coast with Scotland's first university, the home of golf, and the ruins of a great cathedral and a bishops' castle.8 miles 17 min by road
  6. St Andrews West SandsSt Andrews West SandsAlmost two miles of sand beside the golf links at St Andrews, where the opening of Chariots of Fire was filmed, backed by protected dunes.10 miles 22 min by road
Directions
Woman in red dress stands beneath "The Beehive Crail" shop signShoppingThe Beehive, Crail2.5 miles
Whitewashed cottage with blue door, steps up to Crail Pottery, sign reading "OpenShoppingCrail Pottery2.5 miles
Wooden ladder rises through a stone dovecote's spiralling nesting boxes to daylight aboveAttractionsThe Priory Doocot, Crail2.6 miles
Coffee, a cappuccino and a square of tablet on a wooden table in the tearoom's courtyard, with blue fencing, pot plants and the sea beyond.CafeCrail Harbour Gallery and Tearoom2.6 miles
Cooked lobster halves on a white plate atop a wooden picnic tableRestaurantsReilly and Sons Lobster Hut2.6 miles
Flags fly above Balcomie golf course, coastline stretching towards the seaAttractionsCrail Golfing Society4.3 miles
Military green truck towing a missile launcher on a grass vergeAttractionsScotland's Secret Bunker4.5 miles
The Wee Chippy on Shore Street, Anstruther, on a sunny day, with people eating at the tables outside its front.RestaurantsThe Wee Chippy5.0 miles
Timber lodge with covered veranda and hanging flower baskets overlooking open fieldsRestaurantsSt Andrews Farmhouse Cheese Company6.1 miles

Recommend to a friend

Stay nearby

Places to stay near the garden, and when each is next free.

A stone cottage with red pantiled roofs and a gabled dormer sits behind a gravel courtyard, an apple tree in the foreground.Maybell Cottage
  • Sleeps 2
  • In Pittenweem
  • 6 miles from Cambo Gardens
Check datesAn orange leather sofa draped with a sheepskin faces a stone fireplace beneath a timber ceiling, a staircase rising behind.The Old Stable
  • Sleeps 2
  • In Pittenweem
  • 6 miles from Cambo Gardens
Free 14–16 NovThe Crow’s Nest, FifeThe Crow’s Nest
  • Sleeps 4
  • In Pittenweem
  • 6 miles from Cambo Gardens
Free 16–19 NovFifies, FifeFifies
  • Sleeps 2
  • In Pittenweem
  • 6 miles from Cambo Gardens
Free 15–17 NovPlaces to stayEvery stay in FifeAll our places to stay nearby, to search by date and by who is coming.See them all
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