Mount Stuart Gardens

About the garden

Owned by

Ashleigh Parker Mackenzie

Owned by The Mount Stuart Trust, Mount Stuart’s 300-acre gardens and grounds are home to a spectacular botanic collection of native and exotic flora, which give life to several gardens with distinct personalities including a mature Victorian pinetum; a two-acre rock garden designed by Thomas Mawson; a 'wee' garden of five acres, planted with tender exotics from Australia and New Zealand; a kitchen garden redesigned by the late Lord Bute with help from Rosemary Verey; and the newly opened Calvary Garden, restored this year using the recently discovered original Thomas Mawson plans found in Mount Stuart’s archives.  

Important botanical specimens and champion rhododendrons grow alongside plants endangered in their native habitats, including 16 National Champion Trees. This unique designed landscape hosts a further 80 county champion trees, each finding their home at Mount Stuart. Add in the relics of an 18th century landscape, a tropical greenhouse, acres of seasonal bulb displays of daffodils and bluebells, established rhododendrons and some recent improvements by James Alexander-Sinclair, and you have the measure of a long and fascinating visit.   

As one of Scotland’s great gardens, recent restoration developments and continued improvements within the kitchen garden, rock garden, wee garden and various path improvements throughout provide fresh interest and encourage exploration of the gardens.