Stunning Scottish Gardens + Royal connections

Hello Reader

I'm just back from Scotland, where we spent a long weekend staying with friends and visiting some of the lovely Scottish Gardens.

The area of lowlands around Perth has some glorious rolling countryside, where the soil is perfect for the colourful azaleas and rhododendrons that we saw flowering in all the gardens.

This newsletter includes my impressions of three very different gardens that we visited, including Glamis Castle, the childhood home of the late Queen Mother.

Talking of the royals, I've been catching up on the State Visit of King Charles and Queen Camilla to the USA, where the charm offensive seems to have been a great success.

I do love a bit of royal style so I'm excited to visit the exhibition Queen Elizabeth II: Her life in style in London soon (tickets still available from July). I'm also sharing below my story of what it's like to be invited to a Royal Garden Party and Buckingham Palace.

Finally, if you are planning a short trip and need to travel light, you can download my FREE resource 10 tips for packing light

Wishing you happy and flower filled travels

Heather x

PS. For trips to Scotland by train, Byway Travel have some excellent Scottish Itineraries.

Heather at Drummond Castle Gardens Scotland

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A Royal Visit

To celebrate the recent State Visit of King Charles and Queen Camilla to the USA, I thought I'd share the story of my own royal visit ... an invitation to a garden party at Buckingham Palace.

Read: A Garden Party at Buckingham Palace

Our Scottish Garden visits

Scotland has no shortage of castles (I wrote about some of them here), some of which are very grand, others more like fortified manor houses. Here are three that we visited on this trip, and you could too if you're in the area.

Braco Castle Garden - this is a bit of a local's secret, even though anyone can visit under Scotland's garden scheme. There's an honesty box at the entrance (bring cash) and it's all very informal.

The garden looks wonderful in the spring with a succession of snowdrops, narcissus and bluebells, as well as the many rhododendrons and azaleas that were blooming when we visited. We were the only people there!

Glamis Castle Gardens - (sorry forgot to take photos). A series of garden areas surround the castle, which was childhood home to Elizabeth the Queen Mother and birthplace of Princess Margaret.

The most interesting areas were the kitchen garden, where the walls shelter fruit and vegetable and the Italian Garden, which has a formal air with fountains, gravel and statues.

We followed a trail of intriguing wooden sculptures through the woodland, only realising when we reached the three witches that they were characters from Shakespeare's Macbeth, which was set in this area.

Drummond Castle - this was my favourite for the curious contrast of sturdy Scottish tower house with elegant gardens reminiscent of a French chateau.

The parterres with topiary and low hedges look great at any time of year, and they radiate out from a 17th century stone sundial, with peacocks roaming around freely.

The gardens have a distinctly theatrical look and have featured in TV and films like Outlander (where they doubled for Versailles) and Rob Roy with Liam Neeson.