Scottish Garden of the Season: Carolside

July 1st 2016

   

Carolside is an 18th-century mansion set in beautiful parkland, in a valley in the Scottish Borders. Its setting is romantic; framed by steep wooded hills with the River Leader running through.

There has been a settlement here since at least the 13thC and Carolside garden has been cultivated for over two hundred years. It has a long history of good gardeners and it had a well known rose garden in Edwardian days. After the Second World War, Lady Mary Gilmour, a remarkable plants woman, revived the garden .

Today Carolside is best known for its soft and delicate herbaceous planting in subtle colour schemes, its striking Delphinium Borders, its Secret Garden, Winter Garden and its Herb Garden, backed in espaliered pear trees and filled with all kinds of herbs and yellow and whit e roses but of course, most of all Carolside is best known for its roses.

The sweeping lawns lead  to the oval walled garden where the Historic National Collection of pre 19thC Gallica roses are housed, with all roses represented in this beautiful and serene place.

The present owner has designed the garden into rooms, each with its own unique atmosphere; somewhere that one may wish to linger a while .

Here there is a sense of “stepping back in time “to another age and losing oneself in a world far removed from today.

Where: By Earlston, Scottish Borders TD4 6AL

Web: www.carolside.com