Dumfries House, Cumnock, Ayrshire, KA18 2NJ
As the site of one of Scotland’s finest country houses, Dumfries House estate now welcomes more than 140,000 visitors every year. Not bad for an estate that remained closed to the public for more than 250 years.
In 2007, the house designed by John and Robert Adam, its contents and the grounds were put up for sale on the open market. Just weeks before the treasured collection of Chippendale furniture was due to go on sale at auction, HRH The Prince of Wales intervened to save the estate from dispersal and opened it up the public.
Visitors to 2000-acre estate in East Ayrshire can now enjoy several beautiful gardens including one of the largest walled gardens in Scotland, which was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in July 2014 following a meticulous restoration project undertaken by a team of dedicated volunteers and estate staff.
The five-acre Queen Elizabeth Walled Garden, which sits on the banks of the Lugar Water, features a unique 12-metre drop from north to south and a Thistle Fountain, which was designed and constructed by William Pye. In November, rich autumnal colours abound in the manicured garden. Visitors can expect to be surrounded by a vast array of plants and flowers, including dianthus devon wizards, vanda orchids and steptocarpus, which is widely known to be one of The Prince’s favourite flowers.
The Queen Elizabeth Walled Garden at Dumfries House is open all year-round and tickets can be purchased from the Dumfries House Visitor Centre for £3pp. All the other gardens on the estate are free to visit.
Website: https://dumfries-house.org.uk/
Telephone: 01290 425 959
Opening hours: 9am - 4.30pm
Garden of the Week is in association with Discover Scottish Gardens. For more information, advice and day-out ideas, visit discoverscottishgardens.org
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here