GORDON CASTLE Walled Garden and Environs An Historical Appraisal CHRISTOPHER DINGWALL ~ GUIDELINES WASHINGTON HOUSE, MAIN STREET, ARDLER, BLAIRGOWRIE, PERTHSHIRE, PH12 8SR
[email protected] January 2012 GORDON CASTLE, FOCHABERS Walled Garden and Environs 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 This report has been prepared by Christopher Dingwall, landscape historian, at the request of Angus Gordon Lennox of the Gordon Castle Estate, with a view to informing the proposed restoration of the walled garden at Gordon Castle to beneficial and productive use. The eight acre walled garden, lying approximately 500m to the south west of Gordon Castle, is currently laid down to grass. The walled garden lies within Parish of Bellie, on the boundary between the historical counties of Elginshire and Banffshire, close to the planned village of Fochabers. Following the reform of local government in the 1970s, it lay for a time within Moray District, part of the Grampian Region. Moray is now one of the 32 unitary local authorities in Scotland established in 1996 under new local government legislation. 1.2 In preparing this report, reference has been made to records held by the National Library of Scotland Map Library (NLS), the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), the National Records of Scotland (NRS), Elgin Library (EL), Moray Council Archives (MCA), the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), and at Gordon Castle (GC). The information gathered has been complemented a visit made by the author to Gordon Castle on Tuesday 1st November 2011. Information sources are acknowledged in the text in capital letters and/or in captions to the illustrations.