Cluny House Gardens

Bobby and Betty Masterton came here in the 1950s and filled the slope with plants from the mountains of Asia, which thrive in its sheltered, damp conditions, and since 1987 their daughter Wendy and her husband John have looked after it.

Paths wind down through rhododendrons, maples and primulas, past a house of grey stone, and in autumn the garden burns red and gold. Among the trees stand giant Wellingtonias more than a hundred and fifty years old, one of them over eleven metres round; young still, for trees that can live a thousand years. Red squirrels come to the feeders and the lawns, most of all in the morning.

The garden opens every day of the year from nine until six. Dogs are welcome on a short lead.