Blair Castle, walled garden. General view of greenhouses from South. Digital image of B 30438 CN.

Description Blair Castle, walled garden. General view of greenhouses from South. Digital image of B 30438 CN.

Date 11/4/1990

Catalogue Number SC 767000

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of B 30438 CN

Scope and Content Walled Garden from south, Blair Castle, Perth & Kinross This shows the walled garden before its restoration in the mid-1990s. Lawns slope down on either side of an ornamental lake. The walls around the garden are whitewashed and have lean-to greenhouses built against them. These are in a state of disrepair in this photograph, but would once have been used to grow delicate flowers and fruits for the estate. This garden was described as 'the most beautiful Kitchen garden in the world' by a visitor to Blair in 1760. They also described the: 'fine piece of water, with six or seven islands and peninsulas in it, two of which are for swans to breed on, having thatched houses built on them for that purpose', 'pidgeon house', 'Gardener's house', 'Summerhouse which is all glass in front' and 'twenty grotesque figures in lead'. Blair Castle, the seat of the Dukes of Atholl, was begun in 1269, extended in the 15th and 16th centuries, and remodelled to resemble a Georgian mansion by architect James Winter in the mid-1700s. The south-east wing was built in 1743-5, and rebuilt to include a clock-tower to designs by architect Archibald Elliot in 1814 after a fire. The castle was 're-baronialised' to designs by architect David Bryce in 1869-71, who also designed the ballroom (1826-7). It was modified again in 1886 (J C Walker), 1904-5 (J McIntyre Henry) and 1920-1 (Sir Robert Lorimer). Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/767000

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap