They have a fascination and profound history, but the gardens at Douneside House are not stifled by the past.

The gardens of Douneside House in Aberdeenshire were laid out at the start of the 20th century by dynamic landowner, Lady Rachel Workman MacRobert, who was a trendsetter of her day.

She designed the garden to reflect her own interests and to embrace new ways of growing plants. Amongst her creations was a rock garden, which she commissioned from Backhouse Alpine Nurseries, one of the most famous nurseries of the time.

Scottish Gardener:

The gardens at Douneside are extensive and include 17 acres of  lawn as well as terraces, an arboretum, pool and stream-side gardens, a walled vegetable and fruit garden and an ornamental glasshouse. Today they are in the care of the MacRobert Trust and they are managed by Stephen McCallum, former Head Gardener of the BBC Beechgrove Garden.

“Lady MacRobert left us a wonderful template to work with, and one of my key goals is maintaining the gardens’ historic integrity’, says Stephen. ‘Take the recent renovation of the Terrace Gardens, which were created in 1888 and renovated in the early 1900s, I wished to reflect this period horticulturally so it was delightful to find gardening books in the Douneside library by Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville West, featuring Lady MacRobert’s marginalia, that allowed us to redesig the gardens in an Arts and Crafts style.”

The renovated Terrace Garden is punctuated with topiary forms, with a particular focus on yew pyramids that provide a contrast to the herbaceous planting. A focal point of the garden in future years will be a new  Prunus ‘Shirotae’ or Mount Fuji cherry, which has been underplanted with Tulipa ‘Mount Tacoma’.

Scottish Gardener:

Today Douneside House is run as a not-for-profit luxury hotel, welcoming visitors all year round, so it’s important that the gardens offers guests something different each season. In early summer, shrubs such as Syringa and Philadelphus allow scent to drift towards the house, and roses, including ‘Dizzy Heights’, ‘Buff Beauty’ and ‘White Carpet’, flower through the season. Later Rowans and Acers bring life to the gardens and one of the autumnal highlights is the Cercidiphyllum japonica. 

“It’s a real veteran’, says Stephen, ‘probably around 100 years old. It’s the most wonderful golden colour, and the beautiful scent of burnt sugar rises from the leaves.”

In spring drifts of Erythronium ‘Pagoda’ and Trillium erectum, along with the starry flowers of Magnolia stellata, provide delicate colour. But this is a garden that doesn’t stand still and more recently there has been an emphasis on growing produce for the hotel’s award-winning chefs.

At Douneside the distance travelled by food can be measured in metres rather than miles and Scorzonera, Red-veined sorrel, Nero di Toscana (Black Tuscan kale), Kohlrabi, Radicchio amaranta (red-hearted chicory), Uchiki kuru winter squash and Jerusalem artichokes, are amongst the ingredients that make it from the garden and onto the menu.

Scottish Gardener:

Due to its new status as a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Partner Garden, the gardens at Douneside are now open to the public and in order to maintain them to the highest standard Stephen leads a team of nine gardeners, including six horticultural  trainees who are amongst the many people in Copland each year to be supported by the MacRobert Trust.

Stephen says: “The next project for the team is the rejuvenation of the Rock-pool Gardens. We’ve selected a range of moisture loving plants such as Rogersia, Astilbe, Iris, Primula, Gunnera and a mix of ferns.”

The buzz that surrounds the gardens today is in sharp contrast to the shadow that fellow over them in the late 1930s when Lady MacRobert lost all three of her sons, two of them RAF officers, in a series of flying accidents. The house, gardens and estate subsequently formed the basis of the MacRobert Trust, one of Scotland’s most significant charitable organisations, but every day the new life in the gardens, the buds, the blossoms, and the glory of nature honour the MacRobert boys, and that ensure their name and story lives on. 

Scottish Gardener:

KITCHEN GARDEN KNOW-HOW

  • In dry weather, keep the hoe going as this will create a dry soil mulch, break the capillary action and trap the moisture in the soil.
  • Weed seed germination is a good indication that your soil is warm enough to start sowing. Hoe the weed seeds off first and create a clean bed.
  • Never spread lime and fertiliser at the same time, instead space applications a month apart.
  • Mix herb seeds such as chervil and fennel into salad leaf mixes.
  • Sow a green manure such as Phacelia on any bare soil, and dig in to maintain good soil structure.
  • Grow cut-flowers amongst vegetables for a useful and colourful display.
  • Dig in or spread a good layer of home-made compost every year.
  • If space is a premium, grow cordon gooseberries and redcurrants against a wall or fence.
  • Start vegetables and cut-flowers in plug trays, but be careful not to let them get cold or dry out as they are likely to bolt.

Garden Notebook
​Douneside House
Tarland, Aberdeenshire AB34 4UL
Gardens Open to Hotel Guests; by appointment, and on RHS open days.
Tel: 013398 81230
manager@dounesidehouse.co.uk
www.dounesidehouse.co.uk