House and garden
Feb. 19th, 2026 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustSo, as I was saying, we plan to return at midsummer to that part of Scotland where we celebrated D.'s birthday last year. It must be time to resume the unfinished account of that trip. Starting with where we were staying.
D., as we know, has a taste for grand and historic dwellings, and on this occasion had booked the North Wing of the house in Pitmedden Garden:
That's our back door, giving directly onto the garden: and while the house was fine and comfortable (if a little lacking in internet, which is often the way of such places) it's the garden that's the main attraction.
Specifically, the door gives onto our own 'private' garden, and here's a view from the far side of it, looking back at the house:
Turn around, and you gaze over the wall to the formal flower beds which are the distinctive feature of Pitmedden, originally laid out in 1675 and recreated by the National Trust when it took over the property in the 1950s. There was no exact record of the original planting, so they based the design of three of the beds on a bird's eye view plan of Holyrood House (by the same designer at about the same time) with a fourth bed to a new design in the same style.
Interesting as a period piece, or a stage set, but not what I look for in a garden, and I wasn't too disappointed to discover that we didn't actually have unrestricted access to this part of the gardens. In fact, when I devoted an afternoon to exploring, I still didn't spend much time investigating the parterres: there was too much to distract me around the edges of these showpieces. I was sitting on a bench in the orchard when the nice young curator came to expel me; which is appropriate enough in its way - though if I'd realised how late it was, I'd have paid more attention to the fruit trees, and saved the sitting on a bench for later.
There were, for example, plenty of places to sit along the promenades between the corner pavilions, and many with views of Pitmedden's collection of sculptures.
This is 'Solid State', by John Maine, who is, according to the National Trust website, "a highly acclaimed sculptor who is best known for making large outdoor stone sculptures that form relationships with, and are inspired by, the surrounding landscape." I don't see it myself, but what do I know?
So little that my favourite part of the gardens was the rather overgrown herb garden; and most of the pleasure came from trying to identify the things growing there (some had labels, visible or hidden in the undergrowth, some did not): "Oh, look, a medlar tree!" And my favourite picture was this almost accidental assemblage of blur and focus, light and shade, identity unknown:
Now, that is what I look for in a garden.
D., as we know, has a taste for grand and historic dwellings, and on this occasion had booked the North Wing of the house in Pitmedden Garden:
That's our back door, giving directly onto the garden: and while the house was fine and comfortable (if a little lacking in internet, which is often the way of such places) it's the garden that's the main attraction.
Specifically, the door gives onto our own 'private' garden, and here's a view from the far side of it, looking back at the house:
Turn around, and you gaze over the wall to the formal flower beds which are the distinctive feature of Pitmedden, originally laid out in 1675 and recreated by the National Trust when it took over the property in the 1950s. There was no exact record of the original planting, so they based the design of three of the beds on a bird's eye view plan of Holyrood House (by the same designer at about the same time) with a fourth bed to a new design in the same style.
Interesting as a period piece, or a stage set, but not what I look for in a garden, and I wasn't too disappointed to discover that we didn't actually have unrestricted access to this part of the gardens. In fact, when I devoted an afternoon to exploring, I still didn't spend much time investigating the parterres: there was too much to distract me around the edges of these showpieces. I was sitting on a bench in the orchard when the nice young curator came to expel me; which is appropriate enough in its way - though if I'd realised how late it was, I'd have paid more attention to the fruit trees, and saved the sitting on a bench for later.
There were, for example, plenty of places to sit along the promenades between the corner pavilions, and many with views of Pitmedden's collection of sculptures.
This is 'Solid State', by John Maine, who is, according to the National Trust website, "a highly acclaimed sculptor who is best known for making large outdoor stone sculptures that form relationships with, and are inspired by, the surrounding landscape." I don't see it myself, but what do I know?
So little that my favourite part of the gardens was the rather overgrown herb garden; and most of the pleasure came from trying to identify the things growing there (some had labels, visible or hidden in the undergrowth, some did not): "Oh, look, a medlar tree!" And my favourite picture was this almost accidental assemblage of blur and focus, light and shade, identity unknown:
Now, that is what I look for in a garden.
