Aberdeenshire, Moray & Angus

D1 Tuesday, 27 July

Cawdor Castle

Tim will meet you at the Hampton by Hilton Edinburgh Airport at 09:30, from where we’ll drive north for lunch at the House of Bruar, a destination hunting, shooting, and fishing clothing shop with acres of tweed and wall-to-wall plaid! It has a good eatery, and it’s halfway to our destination, Cawdor Castle.

We’ll have the afternoon at Cawdor Castle, an impressive 14th-century fortress built by the Thanes of Cawdor and still the Cawdor family home some 700 years later. The castle has three wonderful gardens – the Walled Garden, the Flower Garden and the Wild Garden – each with its own history and story to tell, and we’ll have plenty of time to explore each one and still have time to look around the castle.

We’re not far from the sunny seaside town of Nairn, and Sunny Brae, our home from home for the next three nights, where we plan to arrive by late afternoon, in good time to check in and relax before dinner.

Today's driving is about 170 miles/270 km

D2 Wednesday, 28 July

Ruthven Cottage & Old Allangrange

Our day starts at Ruthven Cottage Nursery, the nearby home and garden of Mari Reid, an enthusiastic amateur gardener, who has developed a free-form naturalistic style garden with grasses, perennials and even some vegetables growing together in large colourful borders. It is joyous and densely planted, reminiscent of Great Dixter’s Long Border. There’s a greenhouse with all sorts of wonderful things and a polytunnel with chickens, and a further plot which provides space for Mari to propagate her beloved perennials.

We’ll then cross the water to the Black Isle to explore Cromarty, a charming, well-preserved 18th-century fishing town at the head of the peninsula, and have lunch at The Fishertown Inn.

The rest of the afternoon is dedicated to Old Allangrange, the home and garden of our good friend JJ Gladwin, who has been making her garden here since she and her husband, David, bought the place in the mid-1990s. Surrounding the beautiful 17th-century house is a well-designed, three-acre ornamental garden, a mixture of formal shapes and loose planting, and, away from the house, a five-acre biodynamic, no-dig, organic productive garden, providing produce for Black Isle Brewery’s outlets in Inverness and Fort William. All of it sits in 120 acres of organic malting barley, grown for their organic brewery, Black Isle Brewery.

We return home via dinner in Inverness, on the banks of the River Ness at one of the region’s most celebrated restaurants, Rocpool.

Today's driving is about 95 miles/150 km

D3 Thursday, 29 July

Logie House & Ballindalloch Castle

We meander inland along the River Findhorn to Logie House, the Laing family’s much-altered 18th-century home, famously bought in 1924 by Sir Alexander Grant, who started McVitie & Price and developed the digestive biscuit. Like the house, the garden has undergone many transformations, but today, largely under Panny Laing’s knowledgeable care, it is planted with shrubs, trees and perennials for year-round interest. It is a lovely garden in a wonderful setting.

Lunch is at Logie Steading, the neighbouring former farm buildings, now a popular courtyard business and retail space with a cafe, secondhand bookshop, galleries, wine merchants, ladies and gents clothing, etc – which we’ll have time to browse around.

We continue our scenic drive to Ballindalloch Castle, a new (to us) garden, at the home of the Macpherson-Grant family. Built in the mid-1500s, the castle commands the confluence of the rivers Spey and Avon (here pronounced Aan), and sits in grounds laid out in the 19th century. Like Cawdor, we are treated to three gardens: the Rockery, which affords fine views of the Castle; the Courtyard Garden, a classically formal garden; and a magnificent Walled Garden, redesigned in 1996 to celebrate the Castle’s 450th anniversary.

Late in the afternoon we’ll drive north along the Spey to visit Culbin Forest, a coastal pine forest planted in the 1920s to stabilise miles of sand dunes which had, at various times, threatened to swallow neighbouring farmland and cut off the fishing village at Findhorn, where we’ll dine at the Kimberly Inn.

Today's driving is about 85 miles/135 km

D4 Friday, 30 July

Gordon Castle & Carnousie

We bid farewell to Nairn and drive east via Elgin to visit Gordon Castle Walled Garden, one of Britain's oldest walled kitchen gardens and, at almost eight acres, one of the largest. Employing a design from world-famous garden designer Arne Maynard, Angus and Zara Gordon Lennox, the castle’s new young blood, have lovingly overseen the Walled Garden’s restoration to its former glory. It’s a massive space, with some glorious planting and some great ideas.

We’ll have coffee at the Walled Garden’s cafe before a scenic coastal drive, via Cullen and Portsoy, to Carnousie House, our home since we moved here in Christmas 2022. Sofia and I will entertain you to lunch and then take you on a tour of our 4-acre, historic woodland garden – escorted, no doubt, by Peggy, Henry and Maud.

Later in the afternoon we’ll drive through stunning countryside to Douneside House, a truly superb hotel and our home-from-home for the next four nights, where, as always, we’ll arrive in good time to settle in before drinks and dinner at the hotel.

Today's driving is about 120 miles/190 km

D5 Saturday, 31 July

Arbuthnott House & Pitmuies

Our day starts with a glorious drive over the hills into Angus, stopping to take in the views of the Cairngorm Mountains and the North Sea. We’re on our way to Arbuthnott House, home for nearly 900 years for 37 generations of the Arbuthnott family. Its 5-acre garden was created in the late 1600s next to the house on a steep southwest-facing slope with walls on the north and west sides. It is still a productive garden, providing the kitchen with vegetables and the house with cut flowers, and it is a garden we have long wanted to visit.

After lunch, we’ll visit Pitmuies, one of Scotland's finest private gardens. Home of Ruaraidh and Jeanette Ogilvie, Pitmuies is a delightful 18th-century house surrounded by parkland. At its heart is a beautiful garden with a series of rose terraces and long delphinium borders, stretching the length of the terraces, pink and white herbaceous borders, climbing roses, a kitchen garden and a woodland stream walk round the whole thing off.

Later in the afternoon we’ll complete our scenic circular drive, driving over the Spittal of Glenshee, through Braemar, past Balmoral and along Royal Deeside to Ballater for dinner at the Fish Shop, a superb restaurant and firm customer favourite.

Today's driving is about 175 miles/280 km

D6 Sunday, 1 August

Pitmedden & Castle Fraser

We’ll visit two gardens today, starting with a visit to Pitmedden Garden, one of north-east Scotland’s best-loved gardens, famous for its elaborate terraces, pavilions and parterres. The garden sits on the site of a much older formal garden and, although its original layout is lost, the NTS made the brave decision to 'invent' a layout based on authentic 17th-century designs. With some 6 miles of box hedging and 30,000 to 40,000 annual bedding plants, it is a labour of love and quite the spectacle!

After lunch at Pitmedden, we’ll spend the afternoon at Castle Fraser exploring both its walled garden, planted with a huge array of plants, including some thought not hardy enough for Aberdeenshire, and the castle itself. Castle Fraser is a huge Tower House, famous for the 'Laird's Lug', a secret room designed to facilitate eavesdropping on the guests, not all of whom survived their stay!

We’ll have early supper at The Cowshed, on our way home in Banchory.

Today's driving is about 95 miles/150 km

D7 Monday, 2 July

Crathes & Douneside House

We’ll spend the morning at nearby Crathes Castle, one of the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) flagship properties. Built by Alexander Burnett in the 16th century, on lands granted to them by Robert the Bruce in 1323, the Burnetts lived at Crathes for over 350 years. Along with its intricate maze of turrets and fairytale-like towers, the castle is famous for its oak panels, painted ceilings, and the Green Lady, the castle’s legendary ghost. The internationally renowned 4-acre walled garden, which was largely designed by Sir James Burnett and his wife Sybil in the early 20th century, is divided into eight sections, each section with themed borders, roses and many unusual plants.

We’ll have lunch at Crathes and return early to Douneside House to spend time exploring its wonderful garden. Lady MacRobert developed the Arts & Crafts-inspired gardens a hundred years ago, with ornamental borders, terraces and water gardens all surrounding the spectacular infinity lawn overlooking the Deeside hills. The walled garden, on the far side of the stream, houses a large ornamental greenhouse and supplies organic fruit and vegetables to the hotel’s kitchen and cut flowers to the house.

Some of you may wish to relax in the Health Club before we all enjoy a relaxed evening and end-of-tour dinner.

Today's driving is about 120 miles/190 km

D8 Tuesday, 3 July

Glamis

The final garden of our tour is Glamis Castle, which, among many of its attributes, has the benefit of being almost exactly halfway to the airport. Glamis is the ancestral seat of the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne since 1372, and was the childhood home of HM Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother and the birthplace of HRH the late Princess Margaret. It is a magnificent castle in every sense, with two spectacular gardens: the Italian Garden, created by HM The Queen’s grandmother, Countess Cecelia, and the Walled Garden. We’ll have plenty of time to see one of the gardens, tour the castle, and have lunch.

We’ll then return to the Hampton by Hilton Edinburgh Airport, where the tour ends and where we plan to be by about 15:00.

Today's driving is about 130 miles/210 km