Drum Castle Gardens
From home, when I was planning our itinerary, this one looked like the top of our list, if for no other reason than that its gardens are famous for antique roses.
The castle was closed on the day we got there, but the gate to the walled garden was open. Once again we were glad for our National Trust membership, because it meant we could browse through the garden without feeling guilty about letting ourselves in for free. We were the only ones there.

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The walled garden was set off at a distance from the castle (the approach is the first picture in the slideshow), and it had not only roses, but a wealth of other beautiful blooms as well.

This was a most unusual sundial: you stand at the center and it is your own shadow that points to the hour.
The four quadrants of the garden exhibit four centuries of style in garden design, ranging from beds formally bound by little box hedges (something we saw a lot in the Moorish gardens of Spain) to the less formal masses of color we expected in the twentieth century. (I am still not used to the fact that the 20th century is the past.)
The weather was very fine and the distant views, as everywhere in Scotland, were idyllic in every direction. There is nothing to photographing Scotland. Just point and click. There's not a sour prospect to be had.