Soak up the glory of autumn’s colours, writes Susan Welsh
With nature preparing to put on a wonderful display of autumnal colours, there’s no better time to visit the gardens and estate of Drum Castle near Drumoak.
This Sunday, September 21, there’s a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the gardens when the estate takes part in a Scotland’s Gardens open-day event.
Visitors can join the team in the famous walled garden for a day of events raising funds for the charitable scheme, and enjoy a stroll through the rose garden as it is transformed into glorious hues of red and orange for autumn.
There’s also a chance to discover more about the gardeners by signing up for a Colours of Autumn walk with the head gardener, Diana Robertson.
The 13th-century castle of Drum, believed to be one of the three oldest, and largely unaltered, castles in Scotland, lies three miles west of Culter and 10 miles west of Aberdeen.
The castle and its grounds were granted to William de Irwyn in 1325 by Robert the Bruce, and remained in the possession of Clan Irvine until 1975.
Its 18th-century walled garden now supports the National Trust for Scotland’s Garden of Historic Roses and is often referred to as one of sweetest-scented gardens in the country.
The garden, in its present form, was constructed by Diana, who is the trust’s leading expert on rose cultivation and says the garden had four quadrants each representing a century of rose development from the 17th to 20th centuries.
In addition to the roses, Diana has established a small 17th-century vegetable potager with wicker arbour and period plants, as well as extending the season of interest with later-flowering summer perennials beside the 18th-century quadrant.
The earliest roses include the Apothecary’s rose (Rosa gallica officinalis) with its sweetly scented flowers, rich in colour, and the Burnett rose (Rosa spinosissima), which is one of the finest Scots roses, with blush pink flowers appearing in early June.
According to Diana, Rosa Celeste “is everything a rose should be: disease-free, fragrant, pale-pink, delicate in bud and breathtaking in bloom”.
In the 19th-century quadrant, Rosa Stanwell Perpetual performs well and is one of the first perpetual flowering Scots roses, with its highly fragrant pale-pink flowers.
The 20th-century corner of the garden supports roses developed during the last century, including the attractive but unscented Rosa Apple Blossom and the famous Constance Spry.
The Garden of Historic Roses also supports a good collection of clematis, including many late-flowering varieties, and just outside the walled garden is one of the most productive cut-flower borders in the National Trust for Scotland, from which an ever-changing display of flower arrangements appears in the castle during the season.
In the wider policies at Drum Castle, there have been significant improvements to the pond and bog gardens and the property won an Aberdeenshire Council Green Butterfly Award for environmental improvements.
The gardens at Drum are surrounded by 100 acres of woodland known as the Old Wood of Drum, which is packed with coniferous plantations and woodland and offers exceptional views across the countryside of Royal Deeside.
The grounds are open all year from 9.30am to sunset.
Fact box
Where: Drum Castle near Drumoak.
When: Sunday, September 21, from 11am-4pm.
Admission: Entry to the walled garden this day is £4 for everyone, including NTS members, with all money raised going to Scotland’s Garden Scheme.
Extras: Refreshments and plant sales will be available in the garden.
Contact: 0844 4932 161.