£9m grant aids castle garden's rebirth
25 January 2010
The restoration of the abandoned 17th-century gardens of Lowther Castle, near Penrith in the Lake District, is to begin this year following the appointment of leading landscape architects Land Use Consultants to lead the project.
The 52 hectare (130 acre) garden is currently inaccessible and buried in vegetation, although it's believed the original layout of 20 hidden gardens is still intact as well as the remains of three significant buildings within the grounds.
Company principal of Land Use Consultants, Dominic Cole, has previously overseen the creation of the Eden Project and the restoration of the Lost Gardens of Heligan and also chairs the Garden History Society. He said he was 'bowled over' to be given the chance to work on Lowther Castle.
“Lowther has a quality of light and magnificence of setting that puts it into a league of its own,” he said. “We're very excited to be working on its renaissance.”
The ruined gothic castle and its gardens have lain abandoned for the last 70 years, since being used as a testing ground for a secret tank weapon during the Second World War. However, a recent £9m grant from the Northwest Regional Development Agency, backed up by European funding, has allowed the transformation of the site to begin.
The restoration will take place over several years; work begins later this year on stabilising the castle ruins and creating a garden within its walls, with detailed restoration and planting of the rest of the garden following over the next four to five years.
More on the restoration project