Dawyck Botanic Garden
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has three regional gardens. We’ve visited Benmore on the Cowal Peninsula and Logan in Galloway so recently decided to complete the set with Dawyck in the Borders. It was June. It was relatively sunny when we left Glasgow. You’ve guessed it – it was pouring when we got to Dawyck. The solution? Have lunch! The café is excellent, but even with this delaying tactic, we were dodging showers most of the afternoon.
Dawyck is a woodland garden on a steep hill so be aware of that before planning a walk there. However, the lower parts of the garden are the most colourful (see the Azalea Terrace above) and have various sculptures, including a statue of David Douglas, a famous Scottish plant hunter, so they are still worth visiting.
If you venture further up, you are treated to views back down to Dawyck House (not open to the public) and the chapel. The bench at the viewpoint has featured in a previous post and is inscribed “In memory of Jane Dawson who loved Dawyck in all its seasons”.
We dried off over a cup of tea in the café before heading into nearby Peebles, where we were finally blessed with blue skies. Straddling the River Tweed, this picturesque market town has been a Royal Burgh since at least the 1150s. We enjoyed looking at the historic buildings in the High Street, many of which were proudly dated (hover over the gallery to see the captions or click on an image to enlarge).
We walked back to the car along the riverbank, also passing this graveyard with the ruins of St Andrew’s Kirk which has been abandoned since the 1560s.
Another day which proves there’s no point sitting at home waiting for the Scottish weather to improve. Just get on with it and you’ll be rewarded eventually.
Linked to Jo’s Monday Walks – lots of other interesting ventures there.
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
This was a fantastic walk. Those gardens are gorgeous and I love the little church 🙂
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Thanks – it was all lovely.
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I never knew there was such a thing as blue poppies. I absolutely love red poppies, the blue variety is so unusual. I’ve seen red poppies growing wild in Italy, Croatia and Spain but not the blue. We travelled around Scotland in a ford escort campervan 35 years ago and remember it’s stunning landscapes well.
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I’ve seen the blue poppies in a few Scottish gardens now – they originate in the Himalaya. Glad you have happy memories of Scotland.
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Beautiful gardens! I love that stone bridge. I so enjoy looking at your wonderful photos. I scrolled back through your last few posts to catch up. The Pineapple is certainly unusual. Love the Torwood Castle ruins and all the spectacular views. If I can’t be in Scotland, at least I can experience it vicariously through you. 🙂
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Thank you! Glad you are enjoying the posts. I love to show Scotland off.
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These are such lovely photos Anabel in spite of the inclement weather! In fact the greenery is gorgeous due no doubt to all the rain. What a lovely shot of Dawyck House through the trees and the azalea gardens are magnificent. Have always thought the name Peebles sounded so quaint and now I’ve seen photos of it! Hope you’ve had some good weather for the weekend 🙂
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Thank you! At the moment I think we are having “summer”.
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Such a wonderful walk. I love the picture of the Dawyck House with the ferns in the foreground. And more blue flowers, poppies this time. I even envy the weather you’ve been getting. It’s getting really hot again in Minnesota.
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Thank you. Actually, we had a very warm day today (for us) and I got my arms a bit burnt. Tomorrow is supposed to be back to the rain again.
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All that rain has done some good in the garden, as I can see in your lovely photos!
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Thank you. I do love the greenery, it’s almost worth putting up with the rain!
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Beautiful photos, as always – I think that your blog is entirely responsible for Scotland moving up the list of places I need to visit very quickly!
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This makes me very happy! I will have to start asking for commission from the tourist board.
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Definitely!
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Love that David Douglas statue! I think I’m partial to statues with an “action” pose! 🙂
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It’s a bit cheesy!
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I visited the Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden back in May 2012. I truly miss the place!
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It’s very beautiful, I can see why you would miss it.
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Beautiful place and photos Anabel, I have never seen blue poppies before.
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Thanks! I have now seen blue poppies in several Scottish gardens – they are Himalayan in origin so maybe some 19th century plant collector brought them back.
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What a beautiful place to visit. You’d never know it was a rainy day from those photos.
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Maybe another one your parents might like!
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So picturesque, Anabel. Love the heron sculpture, and Dawyck House is really stunning, nestling there amongst the trees. 🙂
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Thank you! We are lucky to have so many beautiful gardens nearby.
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Even with heavy skies that garden is a beauty, Anabel. I was trying to remember if we’d been there but I think not because when we were in Peebles last it was snowing 🙂 Many thanks!
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Could still have been summer, then? 😉
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No- I don’t remember exactly when because it was many years ago, but probably early Spring 🙂
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These pictures are so beautiful. I love those blue poppies! What’s a few showers eh? 🙂 Who owns that home? Although it looks nothing like it, it reminds me of Downton Abbey which we now have season 5 on DVD:)
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I don’t know, just that it’s privately owned. Not quite as grand as Downton!
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I’m ashamed to say that Peebles is one of the few borders town I have visited.
I totally agree that Scottish weather has a habit of clearing around 5pm no matter what it’s thrown at you all day long.
Loved the walk.
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That’s very true. Early evening is often lovely.
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Such a beautiful botanic garden, Anabel! Can’t imagine walk through the lush green garden and enjoy the flowers. Beautiful photos! 🙂
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Thanks! It was indeed a beautiful garden – we’ll need to go back in different seasons (or wait for a summery summer, unlike this year’s dull one).
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I love wandering with you in Scotland. So nice to see places I have never been to (or often heard of). It is so frustrating isn’t it when it rains as you reach your destination. I had the same issue in New Zealand at Hamilton Gardens that I really wanted to see. Solution was to shelter in the heavier showers and just go for it in the lighter ones! Not easy to take photos in the rain though. You did very well and Peebles looks nice too. Off to find the other Botanic Gardens now.
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Thank you! I can see you’ve been busily exploring. Yes, rain can be very frustrating but we get used to it here. Photos mostly John’s as usual, but I’m a very good director 🙂
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Those sprawling hills! Absolutely gorgeous! And I love the stonework in the botanical garden. I’m such a sucker for old, mossy stonework.
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That’s one benefit of all the rain! The lush greenery in general.
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It’s been so long since I’ve seen that much green!
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OH how I love your walks. You have such a great spirit… walk on and forget the weather. Just do it. Beautiful pics as always 🙂
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Thanks. The spirit is only willing up to a point! But a few showers I can cope with.
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