SCOTLAND has a strong tradition of walled gardens created at a distance from a country house or castle, originally to supply the Victorian or Edwardian homes built when productive kitchen gardens were at their zenith. A number survive and have been restored in recent decades, but even more impressive is when one is created from scratch, as has happened during the past few years at Aldourie Castle, which sits overlooking the head of Loch Ness a few miles south-west of Inverness.
In 2014, the 500-acre Aldourie estate was purchased by the Danish couple Anders and Anne Povlsen. Over the previous 10 years or so, Mr and Mrs Povlsen had acquired a series of Scottish estates, which, collectively, have made them the country's largest landowners. The inspiration for their acquisition of some of Scotland's most remote and spectacular tracts of countryside has been the conservation of wild, natural landscape. At Aldourie, the inspiration was slightly different, the celebration of a castle that told a classic Scottish story: originally modest, but secure in the 17th century; baronialised in the 19th century; domesticated and modernised in the early 20th century-in a landscape and garden setting that are in part new, but sympathetic to the place's past.
Mr and Mrs Povlsen had seen and admired gardens by Tom Stuart-Smith and invited him to work at Aldourie. The designer first visited in 2015 and, from the outset, has relished the scope of the brief: rejuvenating the established landscape setting, in particular the parkland and the 19th- and early20th-century arboretum; at the same time as creating completely new gardens, the west garden between the castle and Loch Ness and the walled garden some 200 yards away to the north-east. In these new gardens, Aldourie's heritage would be embraced in designs that are boldly contemporary.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin September 13, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin September 13, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
