A castle and its gardens

The U3A gardening group were on another garden visit, this time to the gardens at Kellie castle  in the East Neuk of Fife. Leaving Peebles at 9.00 in the morning travelling in the community minibus together,

 

we arrived at the castle in time for morning coffee in the old kitchens tearoom. 

Kellie dates back about 900 years though the castle you see today is much more modern, evolving between the 14th and 17th centuries.   It has passed through various ownerships and is now run by the National Trust for Scotland.  The last owners were the Lorimer family who were famous for their artists and architects. You can find out more of the history here.

Ailsa had booked us an afternoon guided tour of the gardens, which consisted of what is thought to be the long garden where archery was practised, and the 17th century Walled Garden. Most of the length of the narrow archery garden is behind me here, but you can see the side of the castle and the peach house!  There were peaches growing in it too!  Along the fence there were beautiful clematis blooming - like this one.

Can’t remember its name. I just like to take the pictures and admire!

The walled gardens were gorgeous and I’ll just add in some photos for you to look at and hopefully admire too.

- a rose arch

and a beautiful bloom,

 

 

 

a sa spray of sweet perfumed philadelphus or mock orange,  and a blackbird on the wall,

 

 

 

 such a bonnie peony

and a small corner of the garden where this old lawn roller was displayed.  I like taking  photos of unusual little corners!

 

Talking of corners, here’s some of the group relaxing in one!

 

 

 

 

a blue and pink one….

 ….and one with a cottage in it – gardener’s cottage?  summer house?  I love it!

 

 

Is it just me, or does this garden have a lot of blue flowers?  Not sure!  Maybe it’s me!  I prefer blues, purples and pinks to reds, yellows and oranges.

This is the back of the castle with the oldest part on the right.  Its turrets were added at a later date.

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the plants, here are a double wild rose and some white lilies,

daisies and a cornflower,

a red poppy,

 orange marigolds, yellow lilies…..

I’m back to the pinks again. These are so beautiful!

 Then there were the veggies and the fruit… my favourite, gooseberries, were being grown up a series of poles and were a height of about 6 feet – nearly 2 metres -  tasty they were.  We got to pull one or two!  Easy to get at too!    There were pears, figs, apples, beans, peas, squashes, all outside, and in polytunnels behind the scenes, tomatoes, and melons were flourishing.

  A bit of discussion took place too, and it was interesting

that Sue was able to tell the head gardener something he didn’t know!

We really had a great visit to Kellie, culminating in a tour around the castle.  There were three rooms especially, that if I could have plucked them out and put them together, would have made me a very comfortable little house!  Photos weren’t allowed in the house, so sadly I can’t show you them!  However, take my word for it, they were very attractive.  So, eventually it was time to head for home again.  This gardening group is a great thing to be in!  Here’s to our next visit somewhere!

Talk again soon.