Gardener's Cottage, Walled Garden, Culzean Castle

Culzean Walled Garden is an outstanding group of garden buildings and structures dating from 1752, enlarged around 1830, with further additions across the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. The garden forms part of a significant listed group within the Culzean Castle Estate, which is acknowledged as the epitome of the Picturesque movement in Scotland and a work of international importance.

The garden itself is a large, rectangular enclosure with rounded corners. Its walls are built in a double skin of squared rubble on the exterior and brick-lined internally, with slab coping. A central east-to-west dividing wall runs through the garden, with glasshouses ranged against its south side and stone sheds against its north side. There are multiple entrances: a large decorative arch to the south-east (designed by Robert Adam), two further entrances on the east wall, and additional entrances on the west and south-west. A sundial stands in the centre of the north garden, a timber summerhouse sits beside the central wall in the south garden, and a rockery with grotto occupies the south-west quarter. A stone-lined water channel, known as the Slip Dyke, runs along the outside of the south wall.

WALLED GARDEN ENTRANCES

The south-east entrance is a triumphal arch in the classical style, designed by Robert Adam in 1786. On its external (east) elevation the stonework to the piers is v-jointed, with a cornice at the springing point and incised crosses in the spandrels. The date is carved into the keystone. On the internal (west) elevation, round-headed niches are set into the spandrels, with a cornice bisecting the keystone, and the parapet is surmounted by carved stone urns. The arch is built in ashlar and fitted with double wrought iron gates with an arched top and scrolled and foliated uprights.

The east entrance is an arched aperture in the centre of the east wall, immediately to the north of the central dividing wall, fitted with double gates in painted timber.

The north-east entrance dates from 1908. The wall is scalloped to each side of the opening, which is fitted with a wrought iron gate of scrolled and foliated pattern with pine cone finials.

The south entrance consists of a pair of detached square piers with panels and corniced coping surmounted by stone urns. The piers are in polished ashlar with droved ashlar block abutments, and the entrance is fitted with double timber gates.

The west entrance is an arched aperture with tooled ashlar voussoirs and a pair of barred timber gates. An ashlar bell cote with bell sits on the parapet above.

GARDEN'S HOUSE

The Garden's House dates from around 1752, with later interior alterations carried out by ARP Lorimer in 1999–2000. It is a two-storey, three-bay, rectangular-plan dwelling house in a plain classical style, built integrally into the garden wall. The south façade is of brick. A late 20th century glazed timber porch on stone base courses and a pair of single-storey flanking pavilions were added to the north. The main fabric is squared rubble with ashlar dressings.

On the south elevation, the central doorway is blocked and a small window has been inserted in its place. Bipartite windows sit at lower level with small square windows above, and a window to the extension is set into the garden wall to the left (west). On the north elevation, a central doorway is flanked by rectangular windows with square windows above. A lean-to extension to the right (west) has one window to the north, and a timber-fronted lean-to structure sits to the left (east). Windows throughout are 6-, 8- and 12-pane timber-framed sash and case.

Inside (as seen in 2010), the living room contains an early 19th century timber fire surround installed in the 20th century. The main room retains timber window shutters, and throughout the house there are panelled timber doors with moulded architraves and a timber staircase. A scullery occupies an outshot to the west. No discernible original 18th century features survive.

GARDEN'S COTTAGE

The Garden's Cottage dates from the mid-19th century. It is a single-storey, Z-plan cottage — formed from an L-plan with a later extension to the north — with its entrance in the re-entrant angle, and built integrally into the garden wall on its east elevation. The main structure is in squared rubble with droved ashlar dressings, and the extension is harled.

On the east elevation (within the garden) there is one square window and one ocular window. The north elevation has two bays — a window and a door — with a gabled section containing a window to the right. The west elevation has a two-bay extension to the left with a single window in the centre of the gable and two further bays to the left. Windows are lying-pane sash and case in timber, and the entrance has a glazed timber door. The roof is slated with exposed rafter ends and two polygonal stone chimney stacks. Inside (as seen in 2010), no original features survive.

SUMMERHOUSE

The summerhouse dates from 1886. It is a single-storey, rectangular-plan, rustic structure with a hipped (piended) roof and a veranda to the front (south) and sides, supported on unplaned tree trunk columns. The frame and cladding are of timber, with panels decorated with horizontal, vertical and diagonal timber strips.

On the south elevation, a central door is flanked by full-width glazing above spandrel panels faced with diagonal timber strips. The east elevation has a biforate (two-light) central window, and the north and west elevations are blind. Windows are timber-framed with leaded upper lights. The roof is thatched with heather.

Inside (as seen in 2010), timber benches with panelled backs are fixed to the walls on the north, east and west sides. The walls have timber-framed papered panels, the ceiling is coombed (following the roof pitch), the floor is timber, and the veranda floor is pebble.

GROTTO

The grotto dates from 1903. It is an irregular-plan rockery of ornamental stones enclosed by rubble retaining walls. A barrel vault runs through the centre with apsidal recesses to the sides of the vault. The vault is of squared rubble with rubble voussoirs, and the walls below the springing point are of random rubble.

SUNDIAL

The sundial is of 17th century date and appears to be a composite piece. The pedestal is a pink stone obelisk supporting a polyhedral carved and incised grey stone multiple dial with bronze gnomons (fins), set on a plinth of grey ashlar blocks. The sundial came from Calder House in West Lothian; it was presented to the National Trust for Scotland in 1971 and restored in 1984.

POTTING SHEDS

The potting sheds date from 1815. They form a single-storey lean-to range against the north side of the central dividing wall, with a gabled bay containing a window to the left (east) of centre. Construction is in rubble, with timber-framed windows and vertically boarded timber doors. The roofs are slated with skylights, and there are two brick chimney stacks. Inside (as seen in 2010), the floors are cement screed and the rafters are exposed timber. An aperture through the central wall opens at the centre of the range.

FRAME YARD

The frame yard dates from around 1810. It is a low rubble-walled enclosure with cylindrical entrance piers on the west side, containing two brick-lined frame pits. A single-storey range of lean-to sheds runs along the east side, against the exterior of the west garden wall. The sheds are of rubble construction with slated roofs, arranged in an open loggia with some bays fitted with vertically boarded timber doors with inset windows.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Culzean was renowned for its horticulture and garden terraces below the castle from the beginning of the 18th century. This walled garden was established in 1752 by the 8th Earl of Cassillis using the latest heated wall technology; the remains of the furnace lie buried to the north-east of the central dividing wall. The Garden's House probably dates from this time and is thought to have originally served as a boarding house for gardening staff, with its internal partitions later altered to create family accommodation when it became the residence of the head gardener in the 19th century. The frame yard was designed specifically for growing melons, installed to the specifications of the gardener John Reid by the 12th Earl.

The garden was enlarged at least twice, most significantly in the 1830s, when a new primarily ornamental south garden was created. Robert Adam's south-east gateway was probably relocated to its present position at that time, as it was becoming fashionable for the gentry to take visitors to view their glasshouses. A vinery of 1859 and a peach house of 1877 — the latter containing aquaria or fish hatcheries — were demolished in the 1950s; the vinery was reconstructed by ARP Lorimer, architects, in 2000.

The summerhouse, described as a tea house in the Gardener's Magazine in 1901, was erected by estate masons and joiners and was probably designed by the 3rd Marquess of Ailsa, based on Laugier's rustic cabin. It was built for Lord Charles to assist his recovery from diphtheria. He also commissioned the grotto of 1903, which appears to revive an 18th century fashion for such structures.

Culzean Castle has been associated with the Kennedy family since the Middle Ages. It was gifted by Gilbert the 4th Earl of Cassillis to his brother Thomas Kennedy in 1569. In the 1660s, the barmekin around the tower house was breached to create the terraced gardens, orchards and walled garden for which Culzean was notable, while the caves beneath the castle were fortified to serve as secure stores. The castle became the principal family seat when Sir Thomas Kennedy (1726–75) became the 9th Earl of Cassillis in 1759. A continuing programme of improvements was undertaken by Sir Thomas and his successors during the 18th and 19th centuries. The 10th Earl began rebuilding the castle to designs by Robert Adam, work continued by Archibald (1770–1846), the 12th Earl and later 1st Marquess of Ailsa, who from around 1810 onwards commissioned numerous practical and ornamental structures and engaged several important architects and landscape designers to embellish the grounds. The 3rd Marquess undertook further modernisation and enlargement of the castle in the 1870s. In 1945, the 5th Marquess of Ailsa made over the castle and its immediately surrounding policies to the National Trust for Scotland.

The Walled Garden was previously listed at Category B and formerly described as "Walled Gardens and Gardener's Cottage". It was upgraded to Category A as part of the Culzean Castle Estate Review of 2010–11.