Edzell Castle
Edzell Castle was built by the Lindsay family in the 16th century, with its beautiful walled garden added around 1604 (then restored in the 1930s). It’s had some famous guests – Mary Queen of Scots in 1562 (though can there be a Scottish castle she didn’t visit?) and her son, James VI, in 1580 and 1589. Unfortunately, mounting debts forced the Lindsays to sell up in 1715. Today, Edzell is run by Historic Scotland and has to put up with less famous visitors such as ourselves. They still send out a welcome party though – an unusually co-operative peacock who almost posed for his picture (though kept his tail unfanned).
My favourite part was the garden walls which included little niches for flowers….
…. and heraldic sculptures and carved panels representing the Liberal Arts.
The garden itself looked best from above:
Edzell is in Perthshire, just north of Brechin and Montrose. We stopped off on our way to Aberdeen to catch a ferry – there’ll be much more on our destination to follow…..
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
Such a lovely small castle and beautiful gardens. Unfortunately I have never been to Scotland!
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Maybe some day you will! Thanks for all the likes and tweets.
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What beautiful gardens! I love the wall with the flower niches.
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That was my favourite part too.
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Love the niched garden wall; super for nesting birds such as wagtails.
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It is beautiful – and I’ve never seen another quite like it.
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I love seeing all these old castles! The walled garden, with its plaques, is so lovely. How fun to see a peacock too! I wouldn’t imagine that there are very many of them wandering around castle grounds in Scotland, but maybe I’m wrong.
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Actually, they aren’t uncommon – but usually a lot more stand-offish than this one.
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That really is some lovely architecture. I love all the care that was put into each element. I need to go there someday and just see all of the lovely castles!! Heaven.
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Yes – it would be possible to have a wonderful Scottish holiday visiting nothing but castles. Though not all of them have roofs to protect you from the weather…….
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Oh this looks so beautiful-I love that garden and agree with you about the walls. It looks like another lovely walk you had. My hubby and I went to St. Mary’s-2 hr drive from where we live but the building there are only from the 1850’s. Love your photos as always
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And thank you – as always!
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Yes, the wall wins it, Anabel! Waiting to see where you get off the ferry 🙂
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Hmm, blogging not going very fast – it might be a while!
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Plenty of time in Winter 🙂 I meant to say that somewhere in my distant past I may have been to Edzell. Can’t quite pin down a memory though.
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I hope before winter!
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Wow, that is some wall. I’d take that wall home with me in a suitcase if I could.
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It’s beautiful. I expect birds could nest in it too.
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Gorgeous photos. Love that garden!
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Thanks! It’s so pretty, especially from above.
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What a pretty garden! What a beautiful welcoming committee. 🙂
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Thanks! Yes, he was there in the car park awaiting us and graciously allowed himself to be photographed.
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What a lovely place – it looks so welcoming and serene!
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Thanks, it was, even though it rained while we were there!
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I love a walled garden and this one is pretty, though small. I don’t think it would hold my attention for very long, but a lovely setting and who can resist a peacock!
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Indeed! This peacock was a very handsome fella. Yes, it’s a small site but it was a perfect short stop on our journey. We have membership cards for Historic Scotland properties which is great because we don’t pay for individual visits so we don’t feel the pressure to linger to “get our money’s worth”.
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That’s the bonus of membership, you can just pop into a property for half an hour or so. I was surprised by Scottish castles (in Dumfries & Galloway) as they mostly look like tall houses! Not at all what I imagine to be a castle.
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Tower Houses are common – but we have more castle-y castles too!
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Umm. Meant to say they look like fortified homes.
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Occasionally one of the smaller tower houses comes on the market and people still live in them. Quite fancy that, except for being in the middle of a field or something!
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That garden took my breath away. Really!
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Glad you liked it. I’ve run out of gardens to write about at the moment but there are sure to be more soon!
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Looks perfect…. sweet little niches for flowers and peacocks. You always find something interesting!
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Thanks! Hope you are settling in to your new home – I expect many interesting pictures / stories to come out of that…
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Thanks Anabel. Right now the most interesting thing to happen is trying to get from point A (home) to point B (store) to get much needed water!!!
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Hi Anabel,
Lovely pictures of Edzell! We visited it some years ago but didn’t meet the peacock. Perhaps he’s a new addition.
The walled garden is stunning, isn’t it!
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Thank you! It is stunning. There were several peacocks, but this one was the boldest.
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