Johnstounburn House

We paid what will probably be the last garden visit for this summer as the season is rapidly coming to an end. But last was without a doubt best in this case! The garden was open under the Gardens of Scotland scheme and is attached to an equally remarkable house called Johnstounburn. It dates from 1625 and was originally an inn frequented by highwaymen who enjoyed robbing the Edinburgh to London stagecoaches. Exciting stuff. It has since been a shooting lodge, a country hotel and has now become a private house. And what a house and garden it turned out to be. There have been some wholescale renovations going on in recent years and the result could be admired today.

The gardens and restored glasshouse are superb and even though it's late summer there was still a wealth of colour in the gardens.

There was also a wonderful piece of art which was hung to it's very best advantage in the garden. This disc sculpture is by Emily Young.

I fell in love with the red kale despite the fact that I would hate having to eat it. But the texture and colour were stunning as were the kniphophia, or red-hot pokers to give them their common name.

But the highlight of the visit for me was the doocote, dating back to the 17th Century. A building of magnificent proportions and beauty. It took some doing to imagine it filled with pigeons but the inside gave us a very good idea of just how many birds this building could accommodate and I can only imagine that pigeon pie was a very favourite dish back in those olden days!! For a quilter the grid system inside was a magnificent gift and I took a wealth of pictures which might well turn into art in the future. Even the sun was with us for most of the day and John and I agreed this was the best garden we've visited so far! I might well show you more pictures of this visit one of these days!