Walled Garden And Owl Statue, Ardwell House

The Walled Garden and Owl Statue at Ardwell House date back to the late 18th century. The walled garden features a rectangular plan, covering approximately 6000 square meters. It is enclosed by coped rubble walls with buttressing, and some of the inner walls are lined with red brick. There are rubble lean-to storage sheds along the outer north wall and a central rubble enclosure that includes a small pond. Timber doors are located on the south, west, and north walls.

Adjacent to the garden is the Gardener's Cottage, which is a single-storey building with an attic and a three-bay rectangular plan. The rear elevation of the cottage forms part of the west wall of the garden. It is whitewashed with overhanging eaves and features an off-centre buttress on the right side of the rear elevation, with a single window on either side. The principal elevation has a glazed lean-to entrance porch at the centre, flanked by windows, and gabled dormers in the attic. The gabled side elevations are blank, and there is a garage adjoining to the right. The windows are timber-framed, and the roof is covered with graded purple-grey slate and has a tiled ridge, with coped gablehead stacks topped with circular cans and cast-iron rainwater goods. The interior was not seen in 1999.

To the north of the walled garden stands an owl statue, which is the emblem of the MacTaggart family. This statue was carved by John Rhind between 1871 and 1872. An identical owl can be found in the woodlands garden, as noted in the description of Ardwell House.