Outlandishly beautiful

FOR generations, uninitiated visitors have come to the top of the double steps at the edge of the cobbled courtyard of Drummond Castle and gasped in admiration at the hitherto hidden and extraordinary garden below the terraced rocky outcrop on which it stands. ‘Hearing the exclamations when you are working in the area is phenomenal,’ says Edith Barnes, head gardener since 2014, who has witnessed more than a few ‘wows’ in the 40 years she has been working there.

Give or take periods of sequestration and wartime abandonment, the formal gardens have been impressing onlookers at Drummond, near Crieff in Perthshire,