Dirleton Castle in East Lothian is one of the actual ruins that Cromwell knocked about a bit. After the Lord Protector’s army held it under siege in 1655, the castle was badly damaged, bringing to an end its 400 year history as a formidable fortress and a noble residence.

A few years later the Nisbet family built a new home nearby and turned the ruins of Dirleton into the centrepiece of a designed landscape that has been reshaped several times over the centuries.

Much of the garden was created in the late 19th century and then restored in the 1930s, while part of it dates from the Arts and Crafts movement of the 1920s.

Dirleton has topiary yews, mature trees and one of the longest herbaceous gardens in the world, as well as high defensive walls and a deep moat.

Dirleton Castle

Dirleton EH39 5ER