Garden Visit: Culzean Castle & Country Park
We recently spent a week on the lovely Ayrshire Coast and decided to visit Culzean Castle & Country Park, especially as it is both dog and child friendly, a must for us these days. We have been to Culzean before but not for quite some time so we were looking forward to exploring the grounds and gardens. Here’s our review and why you should visit…
The Burts at Culzean Castle and Country Park
Entrance
Family entrance to both the Castle and the country park is £42.25 so we decided to upgrade to annual National Trust for Scotland membership for £108, allowing us access and free parking at their many attractions across Scotland. As 1 adult membership is £60 getting a full family membership for £108 seemed good value to us.
The walled garden at Culzean
What to see
Our first stop, being gardeners, was the Walled Garden. Filled with heavenly herbaceous and gorgeous veg it’s a sight for the eyes. From there is was only a short walk to the Adventure Playground, top of the girls’ wish list! The play area is full of dens, climbing frames and zip lines and is great fun for kids of all ages. Dogs aren’t allowed into this area so Jill and Noodle went off for a walk around Swan Pond and the woodlands. Dogs are allowed off lead in the woodland so Noodle had a wonderful time exploring the grounds.
Noodle off exploring Culzean Country Park
We then popped into the Robert Adam designed Castle which had a Lego treasure hunt for the kids to do. Luckily we had binoculars to hand so we managed to find all the cheeky wee Lego people, hid in every room!
The Lego hunt was fun
We then popped down to the formal gardens which are stunning and feature a beautiful water feature.
The stunning formal gardens at Culzean
We had a fun packed day and we love that we now have membership so can pop back in next time we are in the area. Go visit, we recommend it!
Vialii
Lulu’s Garden Review – Logan Botanic Garden
Hello everyone. It’s been hard work writing these blogs – it takes lots of research and practical work you know! So, after a few of my winning smiles I persuaded M& D that I needed a holiday! We are lucky that my Grandma & Grandpa have a cottage on the West Coast of Scotland we can use so we packed our bags and headed off for a few days of “rest”! We did lots of fun things on holiday including going to the Heads of Ayr Farm Park (1) with my BFF Euan and we also went to Portpatrick (2). One of the things we like to do on holiday is visit nice gardens. In this part of the country we are spoilt for choice – from the grandeur of Culzean to the relaxing haven of Glenwhan there is something to suit everyone. My personal favourite is Logan Botanic Garden which is south of Stranraer. It is filled with lots of beautiful things to see. I know you are busy people so instead of boring you with lots of plant names and the history (I’ll leave that for M&D to do!) I have decided to tell you my story of Logan in some lovely photos…
Tree ferns are one of the main features of Logan Botanic Garden
A lot of the plants at Logan are exotic as it is located in the Gulf Stream. These aeoniums look almost alien!
More exotics – this time lots of Cannas in full flower. The mild temperatures at Logan make exotic planting possible.
Wow – what a lovely long path round the Walled Garden to explore. This part is packed with all sorts of pretty flowers.
Tree ferns take a while to grow big (unlike me) – here lots have been planted out for the future.
I love trees. And there are some wonderful types in Logan. Here I am looking at a big old Eucalyptus
Hmmm, I wonder why the common name for Kniphofia is Red Hot Pokers?
Taking a moment to admire the carp pond
The gunnera jungle is a great place to explore
“Bug”ingham Palace – haha!
I love sniffing flowers and the mopheads on these Hydrangeas were spectacular
If you have been to visit a garden that was really nice I would love to hear about it and maybe one day I could go there too.
Read our blogs of other gardens to visit in the area:
Lulu
1. Head of Ayr Farm Park is a wonderful day out for the family. It has lots of animals to see as well as fun things to play on, both indoors and out. It’s also close to the Electric Brae which is weird!
2. Portpatrick is a pretty harbour village south of Stranraer. We love the putting green there. On this visit M&D got three holes in one between them but I can’t possibly say who got the most…