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Dundonnell and Durnamuck – two stunning Highland gardens

Laura

You know that you have been on an epic garden visit when you leave with your preconceptions debunked, the dial on what is possible shifted and you continue to mull over with wonder at what you’ve experienced long afterwards.

I was awash with all these emotions after Caroline had organised visits to two very contrasting gardens set just 4 miles apart in the heart of the Scottish Highlands. Dundonnell, an immaculate, romantic, and intriguing 18th century walled garden, and Durnamuck, an exciting, progressive, naturalistic gardenscape overlooking a sea loch.

The first thing to say about both these gardens is the hidden nature of their locations amongst the majestic but undeniably spartan landscape of the North West Highlands, where only rock and heather look at home, and the predominant colour when we visited in late September, was brown.

Swinging into the understated driveway of Dundonnell House, against a backdrop of the munro An Teallach, the modest entranceway did not adequately prepare us for the treats we had in store.

Laid out in the 18th century by a successful industrialist of the time in the familiar matrix of a high stone walls, box-lined vistas and a glasshouse, the two acre site has passed through several phases of ownership since. It was latterly bought in 1998 by lyricist Sir Tim Rice and his wife Jane, and Jane still manages the 33,000 acre Dundonnell Estate and Garden with her son.

The bones of the garden remain and on first sight the precision with which the hedges and lawns are maintained might convey a sense of continuity with the past. But look closer and you’ll soon realise the current planting diversity smacks of something much more daring and experimental than a traditional walled Victorian garden.

At first sight Dundonnell looks like an immaculately kept but traditional Victorian garden

It was thrilling to come across subtropical rarities like the giant dandelions from Madeira, Sonchus fruticosus and bromeliads like Fascicularia bicolour, more familiar in coastal West Coast gardens than the Highlands. Research into the soil conditions of the garden revealed that it had quite a thin soil covering a substratum of gravel, giving almost perfect drainage, which was the key to keeping these less hardy species going through the harsher winters.

It was thrilling to see subtropical epiphytes like this Fascicularia bicolor growing outdoors in the Highlands

The borders were absolutely packed with plants that you may only have read about, jostling together along seemingly endless herbaceous borders, using the stored warmth and protection the stone walls to coddle more fragile and rarified specimens such as pineapple broom, Cytisus battendieri and the autumn flowering Clematis rehderiana. Elaine and I were like pigs in clover as we spotted plant after plant from our list of favourites.

The herbaceous border was a seemingly endless parade of surprises and delights

With its pathways and ponds, garden rooms and specimen trees, it was a plantsman’s paradise in a gorgeous, cloistered setting, with overtones of somewhere like Oxford Botanic Gardens much further south. It may have been the romantic pools of the River Dundonnell that you looked out over rather than those of the River Isis, but the feelings of going on a voyage of discovery through a plant collection from around the world was all there.

As for the glasshouse – well I could have spent all day in there! It was clearly the beating heart of this exceptional garden where much of the propagation supply chain to keep the garden stocked up was centred. Racks were filled with a treasure trove of baby ferns, tender fuchsias, rare salvias ….

The pretty glasshouse was home to a tantalising range of rare and exotic plants

The ‘take-homes’ from this garden were many and various. A big one for me was that a plant’s hardiness is not dictated by temperature alone: drainage, aspect and shelter can push the boundary of what is possible even in this supposedly harsh outpost of the British Isles.

I would never have expected this giant sowthistle, Sonchus fruticosus, endemic to Madeira to be thriving this far north

Elaine was really taken with the way that crown lifting of the many ornamental trees allowed views across the beds and borders through the gnarly trunks. She was also thrilled to find a gorgeous deep purple geranium new to her, still flowering profusely and wandering languorously around the borders – we deduced it must be ‘Ann Folkard’, and its gone straight on her shopping list.

Geranium ‘Ann Folkard’ still shining brightly in the borders

I’m afraid poor Caroline got a huge lecture from me about how ferns and Helleborus argutifolius could be planted directly into the hoggin driveway to create a really pleasing cameo at the base of a north wall – something I have been nagging her to do for years at her own Highland home, and she has told me wouldn’t work – it does, with knobs on!

What Caroline’s north wall could look like!

Visiting at this time of year, late September, meant that much of the garden was tipping over in its autumn colours, but we all vowed to visit again at other times of the year. Although a private garden, Dundonnell is open by appointment and on 3 public opening days at various times of the summer for the Scottish Garden Scheme so we’re definitely watching out for these dates next year.

There were certain perks from visiting in autumn such as this tree peony seed pod, but it whetted our appetite to this in flower as well.

I have tried to to capture our visit in a short video and the link is at the end of this review, but let me first tell you about Durnamuck.

If Dundonnell is an exercise is creating rarified conditions through anthropomorphic intervention by way of constructs such as walls, ponds and glasshouses, 2 Durnamuck is the complete opposite. In this garden the prevailing weather conditions have been taken as given and have completely shaped what is grown in the garden, not the other way around.

The homestead nestles organically into the open hillside that slopes down to the shores of Little Loch Broom, and the borrowed landscape of the Highland mountain ranges gives this garden surely one of the most breathtaking outlooks in the UK. The garden entrance is even more humble than that of Dundonnell and ‘turn right when you see the roadside egg shack’ seems to be the only clear directional instruction to finding it.

The view from 2 Durnamuck has to be seen to be believed

So what do you plant on a coastal, windswept location such as this? The answer seems to be largely plants from South Africa, with great swathes of burnt orange and pink crocosmias, diaramas, watsonias and kniphofias bringing vibrants colours that light up the hillside.

Watsonias in gorgeous colours light up the hillside

Grasses add heft as do, excitingly, restios, again from South Africa. I have admired these characterful reed-like grasses at Chelsea Flower Show so often but have rarely seen them being used to such a great effect in a garden setting. Throw in some daisies and sanguisorbas and the hillside planting waves and dances in the breeze; these are plants that don’t just tolerate the windy conditions, they revel in it. This is naturalistic planting as its very best.

It was lovely to finally see restios growing in an environment that clearly suited them

Closer to the house, where there is a little more shelter from the prevailing westerlies there are pockets of Mediterranean plantings and I spotted a large Madeiran Echium candicans in the corner of a wall angle, which must look absolutely fantastic when in full flower. A huge grouping of pots provides endless opportunities for peering and wonderment.

Pots of curiosity ….

Stone walls abound with succulents and streams are lined with astelias, francoas and ferns. In fact there were ferns everywhere, creating interest and verdancy. No nook or cranny is left without a plant that’s adapted to grow in it.

Literally no planting opportunity was missed, and I bet with this density of planting there’s very little weeding to do!

And this was one of our big ‘take homes’ from this garden. No matter what conditions you have in your garden, there will be a plant that’s adapted to grow in it. Another was the use of ferns as ground cover. I had spotted this at Dundonnell as well, and this is no surprise as the genius behind both gardens turns out to be the same couple, partners Will Soos and Sue Pomeroy.

This clever use of ferns as ground cover was a revelation

Will and Sue met whilst both working at Inverewe Garden, Will managing the walled garden and Sue the propagation unit. Will has been the Head Gardener at Dundonnell for a number of years and Sue’s prowess in propagation and special interest in South African plants was the serendipity that led to the creation of their unique garden at Durnamuck. Their combined knowledge and style stretches to the house they built on their plot as well, based on the shape of a typical scottish croft black house, but with the red tin roof with which many of these black houses replaced the original thatch. Elsewhere on the plot the crofting tradition is evident in productive polytunnels, a decorative vegetable plot and a chicken run. There is a bothy beside the house which they let out as an artists’ retreat.

Again, this is principally a private garden but open by appointment and on those all-important dates in the Scottish Garden Scheme.

We truly had the most wonderful day visiting these two exceptional gardens and heartily recommend that you try and visit them if you can. We certainly will! We’d like to thank Lady Rice, Will Soos and Sue Pomeroy very much for allowing us to spend several very contented hours among such beauty and brilliant design.

I’ve tried to capture the essence of our visit to these two gardens in this little video.

By the3growbags

We're three sisters who love gardening, plants and even the science of horticulture but we're not all experts. We'd love everyone even remotely interested in their gardens to be part of our blogsite.

4 replies on “Dundonnell and Durnamuck – two stunning Highland gardens”

Very good points about the effect of the Gulf Stream meaning that east west is as important as north south in determining what plants will grow outside in Scotland but why describe Fascicularia bicolor as an epiphyte? it ‘s one of several bromeliads that grow in the ground. It is also hardy in coastal East Lothian

Hello Stan, how lovely to hear from you, we loved our visits to the Caley and it’s a shame that now Caroline has moved much further north we don’t get the chance to visit as much. Yes there’s so much more to the hardiness of plants than just how far north the garden is – that’s why I love gardening as a hobby, there’s always so much to learn. Re the Fascicularia bicolor , I’m not very familiar with this plant myself but I read that it had a subspecies subsp. canaliculata, which was epiphytic and can be seen at Inverewe alongside the terrestrial one, and as it was growing on a tree at Dundonnell I assumed it was this, but happy to be corrected! So glad that you follow our garden adventures with interest, we’re flattered that you enjoy our garden ramblings Best wishes Laura

Absolutely love Dundonnell and can’t recommend it enough. I have visited it twice at different times of the year, there’s so much to see and take in. Definitely a dream garden and inspiration. I was quite taken with the bearded iris planting amongst stone slabs idea which I assume was to retain the heat and ensure drainage. The drive over there itself is also always a treat. Durnamuck is on my must see list for next year.

Hi Clancy, it’s Elaine here. Yes, we were really blown away by Dundonnell – an incredibly special garden – even so late in the year, it was full of colour, interesting design and wonderful plants. I have a very soft spot for bearded irises and that does sound a very good way of growing them because they certainly flower better with a proper baking in the summer. Of course they were long finished when we were there, but it sounds a good reason to make a repeat visit in May/June! Yes, do visit Durnamuck too – it’s so close to Dundonnell, and is in a most spectacular location; I think you’ll love it. Hope I see you the next time I’m up with Caroline in Strathpeffer – it’s been too long!

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