Dunvegan Castle & Gardens

About the garden

Owned by

Hugh Macleod

Dunvegan Castle’s five acres of formal gardens began life in the 18th century. In stark contrast to the barren moorland and mountains that dominate the Isle of Skye’s surrounding landscape, the castle’s Water Garden, Round Garden, Walled Garden, and woodland walks provide a hidden oasis filled with flowers, exotic plants, shrubs, and specimen trees framed by shimmering pools fed from waterfalls and streams that flow down to the sea.

The Water Garden, with its ornate bridges and islands, is replete with rich and colourful plantings adorning the riverbanks; while the formal Round Garden features a Japanese holly (Ilex crenata) parterre as its centrepiece overlooked by a monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana). The Walled Garden, formerly the castle’s vegetable garden, contains diverse plants and flowers that complement the water lily pond, Garden Museum, Memorial Gazebo, 17th-century lectern sundial, Larch Pergola, Glass House and the ‘Dunvegan Pebble’, a rotating 2.7t Carrara marble sculpture.

The herbal border and traditional raised vegetable beds illustrate the Walled Garden’s original function to provide food for the Chief, his family and people. The more informal areas of the garden are kept wilder to encourage wildlife and create a more natural aesthetic framed by the beauty of this coastal scenery.