Kinross House Gardens
When Sir William Bruce purchased the Kinross Estate from the Douglases
in 1675, the first thing he did was to level and drain the land chosen as the site for his new
house and gardens. Planning of the gardens started immediately he decided they were to be formal
in the contemporary Franco Dutch style, with terraces, parterres and orchards. Indeed, the building
of the house itself did not commence until 1685 and the period 1679-85 was spent with Bruce concentrating
entirely on the laying out and planting of the gardens, whose complex design can be clearly seen
on his plans.
Bruce and his son, John, planted an enormous number of trees, as many as 100,000 by the year 1700, on the estate, creating avenues and woods of oak, ash, elm and Scots pine. John was tasked with bringing back the seeds for 300 chestnuts from France and he did so after consulting with Monsieur Marcian, Intendant of the Physic Garden in Paris. The oldest chestnut tree, still standing in the garden, is thought to be one of those original ones.
Following the death of Thomas Graham in 1819, Kinross House remained unoccupied for the next
80 years or so and the gardens became an overgrown wilderness. In 1902, Sir Basil Montgomery
decided to live in the house and to restore the gardens. He made the formal rose garden, planted
yew hedges and trees and laid out the lovely herbaceous borders. He added the boy and swan statue
to the fountain, and introduced other statuary such as Atlas in the rose garden and two lions
in front of the house.
Sir Basil's sensitive, yet imaginative, reconstruction of the gardens in the early years of the 20th century has resulted in them ranking once again as one of the finest formal gardens in Scotland. Today, the gardens at Kinross House are tended by a team of three full time gardeners headed by Kenny Stewart.
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