Dumfries House Estate

About the garden

Dumfries House Estate consists of 600 acres of garden and designed landscape set within an organically managed 900-acre farm. The main five-acre Queen Elizabeth II Walled Garden has been restored as part of His Majesty The King’s vision for Dumfries House and Estate to be a focal point for Heritage-led regeneration. The opening of the walled garden in 2014 by Her Majesty The Queen followed two years of renovation and replanting. It remains one of the most ambitious and significant gardening renovation projects carried out in Scotland.

The Queen Elizabeth II Walled Garden includes a one-acre education garden. The remaining four acres includes exotic borders, a central pool surrounded by herbaceous borders and boxed parterres filled with colourful perennials, a 130ft border of delphiniums and phlox, a large rose garden, thought to be one of the largest in Scotland, pleached hedges, cutting borders and much more.

Movement and circulation around the garden benefit from a central axis pathway interlinked with mixed plantings of flowering borders, topiary, an extensive vegetable area and fruit garden. A variety of hand-crafted garden structures have been developed on site, including the Gothic belvedere designed by His Majesty, positioned on the top terrace offering a spectacular view over the garden below.

It should be noted The Queen Elizabeth II Walled Garden is part of the larger Dumfries Estate, Garden and 18th-century Palladian house that includes formally planted parterres to the front of the house, a 10-acre arboretum that includes two large naturally landscaped ponds; a large maze, parkland walks and trails, a large woodland garden with a variety of garden buildings and features, a number of bridges that cross a series of burns and the main river that runs through the estate.