The Japanese Garden at Cowden
Upper Hillfoot Road, Dollar, Clackmannanshire, FK14 7PL
The Japanese Garden was established by Ella Christie of Cowden Castle. At the turn of the last century, she returned from an expedition to the Orient inspired by her tours of the magnificent gardens. As might be expected from one of the first western women to visit Khiva and Samarkand and to meet the Dalai Lama, Ella’s approach to developing the garden was trailblazing. She chose a female designer – the gifted Taki Handa – to create the seven-acre site, 30 miles north-west of Edinburgh. It is the first and only one of such scale to be accredited to a woman and it remains a unique, authentic bridge between Scottish and Japanese culture.
In 1925, it was described by Professor Jijo Suzuki, 18th hereditary head of the Soami School, as ‘The most important Japanese Garden in the Western World’.
Vandalised in the 1960s, the garden was inherited by Ella’s great nephew, Sir Robert Stewart, and passed onto his daughter, Sara, in 2008. It has now been brought back to life by Professor Masao Fukuhara, best known for winning the Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show and for the restoration of the Japanese gardens at Kew and Tatton.
Cowden has been managed by a charity since 2014. Although still fundraising to upgrade the paths and install the remaining structures, there is plenty to see at Cowden including the two new bridges, the dry garden, original and new planting as well as the antique stone lanterns. There is also a new 30-minute woodland walk to the site of the old weir and garden tours on selected days. The tea room serves home baking during the garden’s opening hours.
Cowden will close on 3rd November, but the tea room and woodland walk will remain open until 21st December 2019.
Website: www.cowdengarden.com
Email: info@cowdengarden.com
Telephone: 07570614763
Opening times: 10.30am – 5.00pm (last entry 4.15pm). Wednesday - Sunday
Admission costs: Adult: £6, Youth (16-24) and Senior Citizens (over 65): £5.50, Children (5-15), £4. Disabled and primary carer: free.
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