NTS Gardens of Argyll

Argyll in May is beautiful. Austere mountains and never-ending lochs, some connected to the sea, some not. And there’s a stunning coastline of bays and islands, some clearly visible from the mainland, some just ghostly suggestions.

And if you get good weather, it is phenomenal. When the sun comes out in May, its warmth matches that of the Mediterranean.

But Argyll possesses a very different climate to the east of Scotland, where we are. It enjoys a very much higher rainfall, but it’s this, along with a noticeably milder climate, that allows the gardeners of Argyll to grow a far wider range of plants that we gardeners in the east can only dream of.

Visiting the National Trust for Scotland’s two Argyll gardens proves this point. With under an hour’s drive-time between them (far less as the crow flies), Crarae and Arduaine enjoy rather different climates, despite both having sea-loch locations.

Crarae is a planted hillside on the banks of Loch Fyne, not far from Inveraray and therefore quite far inland. If Nature and natural plantings are your ‘thing’, and you don’t mind hills, then a spring stroll in the woods at Crarae will dazzle you with the colours, scents and sheer size of the many varieties of rhododendron and azalea planted there, with a supporting cast of some quite enormous trees, introduced and planted in the late 19th and early 20th Century.

Crarae, home to some amazing trees, is a garden on a very different scale.

We visited in May 2025, so, unusually, very little water was cascading down the network of streams due to four weeks’ drought, but their sound, movement and dynamism would normally, we should imagine, be an ever-present feature.

Despite most of the plants being exotic, Crarae takes a naturalistic, ‘wild garden ‘approach.

Make it to the top and you are rewarded with a stand of huge eucalyptus, some at quite jaunty angles, all very impressive with their camo-style bark. Note, though, that Crarae has a ‘wild garden’ feel to it. This is a place where trees and shrubs are allowed to grow to their full potential, a place which gives you a feel, perhaps, of what an Himalayan hillside could be like, curated with a light touch by gardeners to retain this illusion of wildness. Curiously, we visited this garden over 30 years ago, when it was much more cultivated, so the current ‘look’ is one which the Trust has actively determined for it. For those expecting more of a ‘gardened’ garden, this is somewhat provided for by more cultivated plantings inside the entrance, which also perhaps attempt to stretch the season of interest beyond April and May. While perfectly pleasant, we felt this area lacked impact, though, and we pondered on how much horticultural interest there would be at Crarae during the summer months. Autumn colour will, though, be impressive as the acers and azaleas start to turn.

The rhododendron and azalea collection at Crarae is impressive, creating amazing banks of colour in April and May.

Arduaine, on the banks of Loch Melfort, on the other hand, is very different and perhaps more of a year-round garden. This is also a woodland garden, or rather was, as the canopy of c.1000 Japanese larch has had, due to Phytophthera, to be removed over the last few years leaving all the intermediate and understory plants in position ‘without an umbrella’. This might sound a bit weird, but the outcome actually worked for me. We visited on a very warm sunny day and the ambience was one of Mediterranean hillside, certainly not Scottish woodland. In part this was due to the huge range of tender shrubs, small trees and large ferns remaining. The Trust has replanted c.3000 trees of various varieties to recreate the woodland but these will take decades to establish. If the understory plants survive without their former Japanese guardians, then the current ‘look’ might be something the gardeners here could reconsider retaining, as it gives the upper garden (which they refer to as the Woodland Garden) a very distinctive identity.

The Woodland Garden at Arduaine, currently something rather different.

Granted, some of this area does still resemble a Forestry Commission stackyard with quite a lot of stacked timber to be removed, and we were a little uncertain as to the quantity of fallen timber left in situ, presumably deliberately, as there was perhaps just a little too much feeling of ‘decimation-theming in places. The area will of course soften in time as it regenerates. And it is regenerating, with a marvellous show of foxgloves and other spring wildflowers to the fore.

Formerly a woodland garden, Arduaine’s upper garden now has a very different, almost Mediterranean feel to it (albeit aided by the blue sky!)

Like its big sister further north, Inverewe, Arduaine benefits from the Gulf Stream with virtually no frost-days, so the glade of self-propagating tree ferns and the range of tender shrubs including rhododendrons, Embothrium, Olearia and Torbay palm look very much at home! But we spent probably more time in the lower gardens, principally a water garden with its succession of tranquil pools fed by streams, beautifully laid out with connecting lawns and crazy paving into a series of smaller gardens, enclosed with fine shrubs and swathes of herbaceous. As with Crarae, the pools had minimal water in them and the streams were barely flowing but this would not be the norm here. Damsel- and dragonflies were very much to the fore along with large populations of tadpoles! There are some fine plantings in this lower garden, with a very different palate to those in the upper garden.

Tree ferns at Arduaine

The lower garden, Arduaine

Both gardens are very definitely worth a visit and you can find out more about their history and their collections on the NTS website.

So which did we prefer?

Crarae has the greater impact in May with bright colours, wonderful composition and huge trees. There are lovely views of Loch Fyne in places and you may encounter red squirrels on your walk. There is a real feel of a natural woodland here, although of course many of the plantings are exotics! But outside of May, that impact will be more muted, suiting those looking for a pleasant woodland walk as well as arboreophiles!

The spring greens of Crarae’s woodland garden

Arduaine has the more interesting plant collection, with a large number of tender species. The upper garden is very much ‘work in progress’ coping with its loss of tree canopy but there’s still a lot to see, and this garden has a jaw-droppingly beautiful sea view. The lower garden is charming with its pools and streams and more traditional feel.

The charming Heron Pond at Arduaine

As to which we preferred, well, we’ll let you guess!

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