I’m sharing some posts about our recent holiday to Fife. Here’s the first part and here’s our puffin trip. This last post is about Cowden Japanese Garden near Dollar.
When we were swapping plans for this trip, both myself and Jan had earmarked Cowden Japanese Garden. We all like to visit gardens and a Japanese one in Scotland is a rare thing.
I probably heard about it first through Emma so it was nice that she was able to meet up with us there. She wrote her own blog post about the day and also took this great photo of me taking a photo of Angel Bunny – note my patented iPhone grip to take photos one-handed. It’s not often he gets to meet a fan.
The garden has a fascinating history and has recently been brought back to its former glory after being vandalised in the 1960s. It really does feel like a piece of Japan has been transported to Scotland.
Like many of my favourite Japanese gardens, it’s designed around a lake with something different to see from every point. The arched bridge is the most notable feature but there’s lots more to see including a zig zag bridge, zen rock garden, stepping stones, stone lantern (and tanuki!) and more. The only thing missing really was carp and turtles in the water!
We walked around twice – with a nice lunch and cake in between – and were lucky that the sun came out after lunch making our second round of photos even better.
We really enjoyed our visit and I’d definitely recommend it if you’re in the area. I imagine it will be beautiful in all seasons and I hope I get to go back sometime.
All my photos are now on my Flickr if you’d like to see more.
