Peeling Back The Years

Carnell, Hurlford, Ayrshire Home of Michael Findlay and Adrienne Eastwood

Generations of gardeners have left their mark on–and their plants in–this unique garden, says Non Morris

- Non Morris

A HANDSOME neo-Jacobean house built of sandstone in 1837 around a 14th-century tower house—so there are crenellated roofs and stepped gables aplenty—Carnell House sits comfortably at the heart of a 2,000-acre Ayrshire estate. The position is perfect: it’s hidden away among mature woodland and fertile farmland, yet is only a few miles from the rugged beauty of the west coast.

The same family—originally Wallace, now Findlay—has lived here since the 1300s and, from the moment you arrive at Carnell, you sense the layers of time and the long chain of family history.

One of the reasons the house appears so settled is its approach along a beautiful and imposing lime-tree avenue. This is, in fact, made up of two enormous squares planted with lime trees to commemorate the role of Scottish soldiers in the Allied victory at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743.

Over the years, the limes have been pollarded and, these days, form tremendous gnarled, rustling battalions of their own. The effect is made more extraordinary as the squares are on raised banks which, in turn, form a broad, emerald-green avenue to guide the eye up to the front of the house and frame the views of the surrounding countryside.

Micky Findlay has been custodian of Carnell for the past 20 years and discovered the delights of using a golf cart to get around the estate when he broke his leg a few years ago. With the great scale of everything here —even the huge spreading oaks that punctuate the apron of land leading up to the house don’t appear to take up much space— it’s a habit he continues to enjoy.