Every now and again we get the opportunity to visit some truly spectacular locations across Scotland. But the Japanese Gardens at Cowden Castle was something else entirely.If you've never heard of Cowden Castle's historic Japanese Gardens, it's probably not surprising. It's been closed to the public since the 1960s and is only now being re-opened in Spring 2018 after some serious work to restore it got under way back in 2011.Designed and maintained by Japanese practitioners Taki Handa and Professor Suzuki in the early 20th century for the explorer Isabella (Ella) Robertson Christie (1861-1949), it incorporates elements of three Japanese garden forms; a pond and island garden, a stroll garden and a tea-house garden. The garden was seriously vandalised in the 1960s and none of the built structures remain. However much of its essential form remains, including plantings, the plan and form and low-lying structures, including symbolic stones.
Located 2.5km north east of Dollar, the Japanese-style garden is set within the undulating park and woodland grounds of the former Cowden Castle estate. The garden itself occupies a relatively low-lying area close to the Cowden estate boundary wall. It is centred on an artificial lake created from what was once a tract of waterlogged ground and is secluded around much of its perimeter by higher ground, shelter-belt plantations and the mature specimen trees and shrubs of the garden itself with the notable exception of an open and panoramic outlook to the west towards the Ochill Hills.It is the formation of the artificial lake which led Kate White, Cowden's Head Gardener, to ask the CSB for help. It's causeway and spillway are both built using large rounded granite stones laid without mortar. Over the years, trees have grown through much of the causeway, lifting and moving the stones from their original positions while the spillway's retaining walls have fallen into disrepair. How could we refuse.
Our first job for the day was to rebuild part of the spillway wall. This was actually a continuation from the work carried out in 2016 when we first visited the site. With a nearby quarry and the loan of a dumper truck, we made quick work of making the repairs.
Our second job was to clear the weeds from part of the causeway in order to see how much work would be required to repair it. With the lake drained so as to avoid needing waders, we stripped out the weeds by the bucketload, being careful to avoid the army of leeches that had turned out to see us. But it soon became clear that one day just wouldn't be enough to put right the damage done by the trees, not least due to the size and weight of the stone.With a date in the diary for later this year, we laid out the stones in preparation for our return and finished off our day with a walk round the beautiful gardens.The Historic Gardens at Cowden Castle is open to the public in Spring 2018.For more information visit
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