Amisfield Park

We paid what will probably be our last garden visit of the season as part of the Gardens of Scotland open days. And it was another very good one. Located in East Lothian Amisfield Park was open to the public for the very first time. The place is run by local volunteers who have been beavering away to restore the Park to it's former glory and make it a viable tourist attraction but it will still require quite some time before that is achieved.

For me the highlight of the visit were without doubt the roses, and above is the picture which became my blip for today although in hindsight I personally prefer the picture at the very top!

The walls of Amisfield Park are approx. 16 ft high and are amongst the tallest found in Scotland and the garden itself is one of the largest walled gardens here too. The original house has long since disappeared but the 4 corner pavilions are still in existence as you can see above. They might have lost their roofs long since but plans are afoot for their restoration by a charitable trust, the Amisfield Preservation Trust. They produced a wonderful leaflet, explaining the history of the garden and their future plans. The history proved to be fascinating going from patricide, to gambling and womanising, lost inheritances and finally to the 7th Earl of Wemyss. The leaflet at times reads like a Mills and Boons book but it all actually happened.

A pale pink beauty almost at the point where it is starting to go over, but definitely a centifolia, with its tight centre filled with petals.

I wish I could tell you the name of all the roses but there were no nametags so I have no idea. But I do know that they are all old roses and more than likely planted to ressemble the roses that would have been there in the 17th and 18th Centuries when the house and the garden were in it's heyday. The reason I know they are old? Their scent was mind blowing!

This is a detail of the rose seen above this picture. Getting this close the rose becomes an abstract filled with colour and texture. It's also full of scent but sadly Blogger is not yet capable of transferring that to you!

Yellow roses are very special to me as yellow is my favourite colour. There aren't as many of these around as of the pink, red and white ones but the joy when I discover a wonderful example like this one is therefore extra great.

And finally this rose which is almost over and sort of fraying at the edges. In my eyes roses are almost more beautiful at this stage than when in full flush of blooming. My tastes definitely run to decay, death and ruins, all things which capture the transience of life and it's fragility. How one day we're here and the next we're gone. Some things are left behind and last forever but we have no way of knowing what these will be.