Monday 14 August 2017

Beautiful Britain - 3 Castles in One Day, Aberdeenshire (Part 2)

Hi there again everyone

Welcome to Part 2 of my 3 Castles in One Day post. Last week I shared our thoughts, and lots of pictures, of the beautiful gardens at Crathes Castle. I still want to share our visits to Drum and Craigevar Castles with you, which were both very different, but equally as lovely.

From Crathes, we made our way, just a short way along the A93 towards Aberdeen, to Drum.

It was a Wednesday and, at the time of year we visited, the castle was actually closed, though the grounds and gardens were open.

We did have a wander through the courtyard and the entrance of the castle, where we availed ourselves of the poshest toilets we had ever seen, as well as picking up some more inspiration for planting back at home.
The weather was pretty grey and miserable whilst we were at Drum, but there was still plenty of colour to be found from the planting and, again, I apologise for the volume of photos of plants, but I know I am going to struggle to thin them down.

We were heading for the Historic Rose Garden and made our way from the castle courtyard, down through the woods, where the candelabra primroses were putting on a great display. We have got to get some of these for our own garden.
As we came out of the woods we were presented with the most spectacular display of lupins, just seemingly growing wild across the meadow. It was a real sight to behold ...
Through the meadow we came to, what appeared to be a bit of a cut flower garden, again absolutely abundant with blooms and bright colours. We were all blown away with the show and we hadn't even reached The Rose Garden ...
It was a nice walk to The Rose Garden, which is entered via an unassuming looking gateway and surrounded by high old stone walls to protect it from the elements.

Entering the garden, we didn't quite know where to look or where to start, there was just so much to catch the eye ...
We decided to start with the viewing platform, which is just to the left as you go in, and gives a good overall view of the garden, which is laid out very formally ...
Beneath the viewing platform is a bit of a stumpery, gradually being overtaken by ferns ...
Although it is an historic rose garden, which is divided into quadrants showing how roses have been cultivated across the centuries, the real showstoppers on our visit were the perennials.

There were a fair few we hadn't come across before ...
As well as some old favourites ...
As usual, the allium featured very highly in my list of favourites ...
It wasn't quite all just about the flowers, the garden overall is really pretty and nicely laid out with archways ...
... and some nice spots to sit and rest awhile ...
Sad as it was, we couldn't linger in The Rose Garden any longer and we made our way back up through the wood, round the back of the castle, through the arboretum and pinetum, where it was all about the Rhododendrons ...
By now time was getting on and we were still hoping to make it to Craigevar, our third castle of the day, so we hightailed it back to the car and were on our way.

We will definitely try and come back to Drum Castle, when its open and when we have more time, I'm sure we've only scratched the surface.

Thank you NTS for another lovely visit. Keep up the good work 😀

1 comment:

Thanks for taking time to comment on my blog. I love to hear what people think about what Martin and I have been up to.