Drummond Castle

The decisive early formal garden belongs to the seventeenth century. John Drummond, second Earl of Perth, developed terraces in the 1630s. Earlier cultivation should not be ruled out: the estate records a gift of cherries to James IV in 1508. That reference does not establish the date or layout of the parterre now seen below the castle. An orchard and an elaborate formal garden are different kinds of evidence.

At the centre stands the remarkable sundial dated 1630, associated with master mason John Mylne. Its many differently angled surfaces make it a scientific instrument as well as an ornament. During modern conservation, specialists examined its complex timekeeping and corrected longstanding misunderstandings about its dials. Look at how sunlight falls across the stone rather than expecting a single familiar clock face. The restored instrument remains a particularly tangible connection with seventeenth-century craftsmanship.

The garden’s present structure owes much to Lewis Kennedy’s work in the early nineteenth century for Clementina Drummond and her husband, Peter Robert Willoughby. Terraces and formal planting were renewed around an inherited site. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited in 1842. Their admiration belongs to this developing nineteenth-century landscape, not to an untouched garden preserved exactly as its earliest patrons had known it.

Further renewal followed the Second World War. Replanting and simplification in the 1950s were undertaken under the third Earl and Countess of Ancaster. The Countess was Nancy Phyllis Louise Astor, also known as Phyllis, and should not be confused with her mother, the politician Nancy Astor. The older framework survived while the planting responded to a reduced workforce. This is a layered historic landscape, not a literal reconstruction of a single Renaissance moment.

The keep is listed at Category B, while the formal garden has its own Category A designation. The wider landscape is included in Scotland’s national inventory of gardens and designed landscapes. These distinctions recognise different parts of the ensemble; a single label for the entire estate can obscure them. The Grimsthorpe and Drummond Castle Trust manages the gardens and associated heritage, continuing the work of maintaining buildings alongside living plants.

Begin with the elevated view, then follow the permitted paths to examine the design at ground level. The garden has appeared on screen, including in Rob Roy, but its strongest story remains the relationship between estate power and designed nature. Summer colour changes the impression; hedges and terraces explain the underlying geometry. Check current garden access before travelling and plan an outdoor visit. The approach, courtyard and garden provide the experience, rather than a promised tour of the castle’s private rooms.