Keith Broomfield visits the magnificent gardens at Wemyss Castle
Charlotte Wemyss has a passion for clematis – particularly the variety Montana – and wherever you look when wandering through the marvellous walled garden at Wemyss Castle there is sure to be one close by.
She adores how they climb up the old apple trees and walls in the garden with their multitude of sprawling blooms providing a real splash of colour in May and June.
“They are so beautiful,” she says. “I love the way they ramble up trees and they flower for a good period that lasts for about five weeks.”
The garden is very much a labour of love, with continual round-the-clock work required to keep it in shape. The walled part of the garden is six acres in extent and it is remarkable that Charlotte, with the help of only one full-time gardener, is able to keep it looking so neat and tidy.
The castle and gardens are steeped in history. There is little information prior to the 1600s, but by the late 17th Century and with increasing peace in the country, there was new wealth at Wemyss founded on coal and salt. The family extended the home and laid the beginnings of a designed landscape with formal enclosed gardens and wooded parkland.
In 1790, Walter Nicol was employed to improve the walled garden, and he set to with lavish plans for heated walls, pineapple and mushroom houses, and an avowed intent to provide stone fruit during all months of the year. The price for this noble attempt at one-up-manship was over 100 tonnes of coal per year for heating purposes, which even to the owner of the coal reserves seemed rather excessive, and he was soon asked to seek alternative employment!
At the peak in 1898, 28 gardeners were employed, but a dwindling workforce from the 1960s onwards saw the condition of the gardens quickly deteriorate. When Charlotte first arrived at Wemyss Castle in 1994, where she lives with husband Michael, the walled garden was a wilderness of overgrown vegetation and a few ancient fruit trees. However, being a keen gardener, she immediately set about clearing the site and starting afresh.
This process started with the creation of a fine herbaceous border along the south side of the wall and three years later this had been extended to eight borders, concrete garden seats were designed and cast and a number of statues repositioned.
A centrepiece pond and fountain stocked with Koi carp, goldfish and golden orfe was also created and other notable features include a pleached hornbeam avenue and magnificent Italian wrought iron gates constructed by local blacksmith Mihii Cocris.
The restoration was based on Charlotte’s passion for short season display of clematis and roses supported by complementary herbaceous planting, offset by a less formal area of ornamental trees and shrubs.
The protected south facing garden has its own microclimate and is a bit of a sun trap – being so close to sea level also keeps winter frosts down to a minimum.
Outside the walled garden, there is beechwood garden sheltering the castle on the three landward sides, which plays host to a succession of spring flowers, most notably Erythronium revolutom. Other flowers found here are snowdrops, aconites, scillas, chinadoxas and daffodils.
Whilst extremely knowledgeable on flora, Charlotte is the first to admit that she is not a plantswoman, and is much more interested in how different flowers visually complement each other in a flower bed. This is the real pleasure of the garden as it provides great colour, vibrancy and interest.
Wemyss Castle Gardens can be visited by appointment only, telephone 01592 652181, admission cost £4.50 for adults, children free. More information at www.wemysscastlegardens.com
