A winter break in Perthshire (Part 1)
Over Christmas we rented an apartment in the former Coach House of Drummond Castle. This was a lovely place to stay, very peaceful with beautiful grounds and gardens to explore and handy for other local walks.
Drummond Castle and Gardens
Although the castle is not open to the public, the gardens are in summer – due to re-open in May 2025. However, as paying guests, we had the code to get in through the West Yew Gate which was quite a sight in itself.
Even in winter, the gardens are kept beautifully trimmed and tidy.
We spent some time walking around the grounds which had good views of the local hills – sometimes snow-capped, sometimes not. We also found a tree with a face!
Walks from Drummond
Two of our walks were done straight from Drummond without having to use the car at all. The Knock Mary circular took us to the outskirts of Crieff, where we had lunch in the Visitor Centre, and back. I waited ages for a sheep to stand right behind that farm sign, but they were uncooperative and kept their distance. This time the hills had mist as well as snow.
On Christmas Day we climbed Torlum Hill (393m). Unfortunately it was too murky to get much of a view. It worked up an appetite for dinner anyway!
In Part 2 next week I’ll be visiting Comrie and Crieff.
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
Hi Anabel – looks cold to me! But as you say … worked up an appetite. Love the yew gateway – and I expect it’s beautiful in summer with sunny days around – cheers Hilary
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It was a wee bit cold, but not too bad.
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What a beautiful place. The garden is absolutely stunning and the view is incredible. I like the big bush gates.
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It must keep a lot ow work to keep that gate in trim!
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The big mouth tree is great! Castle gardens are beautiful. Random fact; they were a filming location in ‘Outlander’ where they were used as the gardens of Versailles. It must have been lovely wandering when it was so quiet.
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I sometimes wonder if there is anywhere in Scotland that hasn’t been on Outlander!
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You picked a gorgeous place in which to spend Christmas! The grounds of Drummond Castle are so pretty and so is the surrounding landscape. I love the mossy wall and the tree with the surprised-looking face. And the view of Perthshire Hills is wonderful.
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Thanks, Cathy – it was such a beautiful, peaceful place to be.
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Your pictures are stunning. What a gorgeous building and gardens and the hikes look spectacular. Thanks for sharing the trig point so I can see one in “action”. That big mouth tree is hilarious! Bernie
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Thanks, Bernie, glad you liked the pictures. It’s a beautiful part of the country.
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What a lovely place to stay!
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It certainly was, Ann!
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Hi, Anabel – I couldn’t stop looking at that Big Mouth Tree. Absolutely wonderful photo! ❤
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Not the bonniest of chaps, is he!
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How lovely to have run of the gardens. Looks beautiful ❤️
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It was great! We loved it.
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Beautiful scenes, but dang those uncooperative sheep! Don’t they understand an opportunity for fame in blog land doesn’t come along every day?
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Exactly! It would have been such a good picture with the sheep on the sign and one standing right behind 🐑.
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Such a wonderful place to spend a Christmas! Lovely views and walks to enjoy. Monty Don was impressed with the garden too!
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I’ll need to find that on catch-up!
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Definitely!
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We saw this garden on a Monty Don programme at the weekend. It is a fantastic place. Thank you for sharing it with us.
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Oh, I didn’t notice that! He probably showed it at a better time of year but it was lovely, and well maintained even in winter.
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It’s really nice when you can go somewhere, park the car and not get it out again. What a treat to be able to go into the garden.
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It was a real treat, definitely!
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What a great place to stay! Think I visited there many, many years ago now.
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We’ve been to the garden a few times, but just as day trips and always in the summer. It was good to see it under different conditions.
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How wonderful! Drummond Castle looks magnificent and a fantastic place to have all to yourself. I like the mossy wall, too – it’s very striking.
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Yes, the mossy wall looked as ancient as days. I loved the shapes it made.
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You’re blessed to have so many lovely castles and gardens to choose from, Anabel. I love that view through the archway.
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We are, Jo – we were only about 50 miles from home but it felt like a different world.
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What a wonderful place to stay at! It must have been great to have the gardens to yourselves.
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It was! Even in winter they were beautiful.
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Another lovely visit. You do get to very nice places around your home. (Suzanne)
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We are lucky to have so many!
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Beautiful and very different. Bob. BSS.
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Yes, it was – a very peaceful place to spend Christmas.
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We visited a couple of years ago. The formal gardens are great, aren’t they. But sadly, we missed out on Big Mouth.
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They are wonderful. Big Mouth is at the back gate to the estate which we used for access so you probably wouldn’t have passed him.
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Hello. Where did you learn that apartments on the castle grounds were available to be rented? — online?
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Yes, online. There is a cottage rental site that I get updates from, and when I saw this I couldn’t resist!
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It’s great that as a guest you were able to access the gardens even in winter!
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We didn’t see a soul when we were in there. I know our fellow guests used them too, but we all seemed to choose different times.
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What a fun thing to do over Christmas!
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It was, Anne, we had a lovely time.
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This looks quite The Place for a wintry break. And I do like your new pal the tree!
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It definitely was, Margaret! The new pal didn’t say much …
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No. He looks a bit batty.
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John thought he looked like Ed Miliband. I thought that was unkind!
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Both unkind and inaccurate!
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what a glorious place for your festive break
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It was, we loved it.
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It looks like a lovely place to stay. The tree face looks very quirky and I like the view of the Perthshire hills.
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Thanks, Eunice, it is very pretty countryside round there.
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