About the garden
Owned by
The Princes Foundation
Designed By
Capability Brown
Dumfries House Estate consists of 242ha (600 acres) of gardens and designed landscape set within an organically managed 566ha (1,400-acre) farm.
The main 2ha (5-acre) Queen Elizabeth II Walled Garden has been restored as part of His Royal Highness’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 larger 1.6ha (4-acre) formal area of The Queen Elizabeth II Walled Garden has been sensitively designed to retain the exotic borders, four 18m (59ft) herbaceous borders, a 40m (131ft) border of delphiniums and phlox, boxed parterres filled with annual bedding, a large rose garden, thought to be one of the largest in Scotland, pleached hedges, cutting borders and much more.
Movement around the garden is via a central axis pathway interlinked with mixed plantings of flowering borders, topiary, an extensive rotational vegetable area and fruit garden. A variety of hand-crafted garden structures have been developed on site, including the Gothic belvedere designed 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 4ha (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, including a Chines bridge and a variety of tree-lined avenues.
