A Wet Sunday Afternoon In Geilston Garden

It was a Sunday that looked like rain and we couldn't risk going too far so we ended up driving over to Cardross to spend a few hours in whatever decent weather we had left of the day in Geilston Garden, a place we've been to a few times now.

The Geilston Burn

Geilston Garden lies just on the western edge of Cardross, on the road to Helensburgh, and is set in the 10 acres around the 15th century Geilston House. It was only opened to the public in 1998 by the National Trust for Scotland. Prior to that I assume it was privately owned as I used to fish in the little burn running though the grounds as a lad and had been chased off more than once; a great wee burn for brown trout and the occasional sea trout too.

The house isn't open to the public and the garden isn't that big but it's usually quite quiet and a nice place to sit in the sun when we get some. It's got a walled garden with an enormous Wellingtonia (Sequoiadendron giganteum or giant redwood) in the centre, a smallish formal garden, a decent sized kitchen garden and lots of little wooded paths around the burn. There's usually plenty of flowers in bloom in the garden so there's always some colour about the place too.

Wet Chocolate Cosmos

Today, however, we got rain from almost the moment we got there until we left. Not particularly heavy rain but enough to make us have to shelter under the huge leaf of a Gunnera plant down by the burn. What they need is a wee tea-room and scones, definitely scones...

There are more photos of Geilston Garden here.