We hadn’t really made any plans for this trip, but we decided to go to Pitmedden Garden on a gloomy rainy day. It’s close to Aberdeen so it was a bit of a drive but a really fun day out.
The main attraction is the formal gardens, which apparently features over 5 miles of box hedging in intricate patterns, all filled with colourful flowers. Even on such a dull day, they looked amazing.
There were four big areas and two smaller ones and each had different patterns. This one is in Latin! It seems to be something to do with Scotland with the coat of arms, Saltire and thistles all laid out there. I did not take Latin at school, though it was actually an option. I think that is me in the act of trying to photograph Angel Bunny with an A.
I found an M for me too. I’ve always loved crazy topiary so there was lots to enjoy. One of the gardens wasn’t finished yet and it was really interesting to see how they were cutting the hedges to train them to the right shape.
There was also a lot of nice paving with hearts and moons and all the hidden stairways and nooks and buildings you expect to find in these sorts of estates.
The top part of the garden had a little building with some family history, plus this amazing old calendar in old Scots – Janwar and Mairch are great, but I’m glad we don’t use Awprile anymore.
Usually panoramas feature unwitting humans, but I noticed in time and this turned out hilarious. Click through to see it bigger. It’s a shame it was raining, but at least everything was blooming and there were very few other visitors.
We sheltered from the rain in the Museum of Farming Life, which was extremely random. There were displays of farming equipment and recreations of the farmhouse and bothy interiors (with terrifying dummies and sound effects) and then all kinds of random tools and things. We did like all these prizes for oats, especially that modest inclusion of one Second Best.
Being a National Trust garden, it’s not cheap to visit but there’s a lot to see and the gardens are pretty awe-inspiring. There are also some woodland walks, but the one we did was pretty boring.