A Castle in Scotland

If I unhitched my dreams from any realistic considerations whatsoever, where would I want to live? Why, a castle in Scotland, of course. A castle with a garden. I have always felt that way. But now I can tell you which castle, specifically: Kellie Castle.

Kellie Castle and Garden

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You can’t take pictures inside these places, so my slideshows are mostly of the gardens, which we generally found the better part of the attraction anyway. And the best of them were walled gardens, those at Kellie, Drum and Crathes being the best of the best. If you can get to just one castle in a whole trip, I say make it one of these three, for the walled garden.

Espaliered pear These gardens would once have been kitchen gardens, where enough food was grown to support the household. And at Kellie, fruit and vegetables were still grown, woven in with the ornamentals throughout.

They grew – did they really say this? – 37 varieties of rhubarb! Each had its own special use, for marmalade or pies. The jellies and cakes were sold in the nice little tea shop.

Notice the espaliered pears. In the little stone garden house in the far corner, we dropped coins in a box and selected juicy little plums from a basket to eat.

In the great hall, which was just a big, comfortable room, the windows look out over the walled garden. Never a defensive structure, tucked far away from the action in a corner of Fife, Kellie Castle is just a big stone house of great charm, owned for many years by the talented Lorrimer famly, and now a property of NTS.

History | Dogs | HOME | Food | Garden

SEPTEMBER 2007: SCOTLAND

Castles & Gardens:
Castles: the Hidden Towers
Kellie Castle
Glamis Castle
Drum Castle Gardens
Crathes Castle and Garden
The Gardens of Scotland
Brodick Castle

Fort Augustus:
The Sheepdog Trials

Dumfries & Galloway:
James Orr's Scotland

Links:
Visit Scotland
National Trust of Scotland
Historic Scotland
Falkland Palace
Kellie Castle
Glamis Castle
Drum Castle
Crathes Castle
Craigievar Castle
Brodick Castle Inver Hoel
George Hotel
Urr Valley Hotel

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