Scottish Borders

Abbotsford House Garden » A Scots baronial house and garden, built by the novellist Sir Walter Scott c 1822. A series of protected garden enclosures behind the house drew upon Scots traditions. The River Tweed front of the house has military earthworks and a fine view. Loudon passed the garden in 1842, in bad health, and remarked that 'Sir Walter Scott's taste was antiquarian rather than artistic, and he has produced such a building and gardens as might have been expected from his peculiar partialities, and his facilities for obtaining fragments of antiquity'. Loudon was perceptive and Scott's interest in re-creating historic aesthetic ideas has become popular. Read more on Abbotsford House Garden

Little Sparta Garden » An old stone farm in the Pentland hills, with by far the most celebrated twentieth century garden in Scotland. Little Sparta was made by Ian Hamilton Finlay, a poet and gardener. It has an interesting layout, good planting, remarkable sculpture - and poetry too. Read more on Little Sparta Garden

Dawyck Botanic Garden » An arboretum on a hillside, with some elements of a woodland garden. The Veitch family started planting trees at Dawyck in the seventeenth century. Dawyck was gifted to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1978. There is a Rhododendron Walk, Beech Walk, Native Scottish Pine Wood and a collection of Rare Scottish Plants. Read more on Dawyck Botanic Garden