Walled Garden

Built in the 18th century, the Walled Garden at Culzean is one of the largest in Scotland and a significant garden in our care. It consists of two sections divided by a spine wall – the pleasure garden and the kitchen garden, which supplies fruit and vegetables to our catering facilities.

This was once one of the most innovative gardens in Scotland –pushing horticultural boundaries in the past included the cultivation of peaches, nectarines and apricots gifted to Sir John Kennedy as early as 1730. The onion ‘Ailsa Craig’ was bred by a gardener working at Culzean in the 1870s.

Over the past year, volunteers and staff at Culzean have been hard at work restoring the gardens, keeping them innovative and fresh. Seeding their ideas together to add a 21st-century twist to the historical landscape, the team are using a range of horticultural techniques and skills from the Victorian age to the present day.

A large sculpture of a pear, made from tightly woven willow, stands on a grass lawn in an orchard. A stone wall and cottage with a smoking chimney can be seen in the background.

A willow sculpture of a gardening man stands at the corner of a stone cottage. The sculpture is shown wearing a flat cap and holding a long wooden handle, perhaps of a hoe. A colourful flower bed grows in the foreground, slightly obscuring the sculpture’s lower half.

A large willow sculpture, shaped like an onion, stands in a flower bed in front of a tall stone wall. The sculpture has an opening at the front, so people can stand or sit inside. The surrounding flower beds have many staked colourful flowering plants, A gravel path runs in front of the beds.