Medieval Palace: Scotney Castle Garden

This is a view of the garden from the semicircular Bastion viewpoint adjacent to the New House. The Great Storm of 1987 felled many of the mature trees that provided the perfect frame for the picture, but their replacements are growing fast to restore the original composition.

The Scotney Castle Garden in Kent was originally created in the 1830's by Edward Hussey III who had the imagination to incorporate the ruined medieval castle as the centrepiece of his Picturesque style landscape design.

Edward Hussey III built his "New House" (seen above), on a terrace 25 metres above the old castle using mellow sandstone quarrried from the slopes below. He lived there until 1894 and saw his garden reach maturity.

The original castle or fortified manor house was built by Roger Ashburnham in 1378 apparently in response to the threat of invasion by France. For 350 years Scotney Castle was the home of the Catholic Darell family.

In 1778 Edward Hussey bought the castle after family squabbles and lawsuits drained the Darell's resources forcing them to sell. Between 1783 and 1792 Edward Hussey pieced the rest of the old Darrell estate back together.

In 1835 his grandson Edward Hussey III moved back to Scotney and built his new home in the Elizabethan style on a terrace overlooking the old castle which he then incorporated into the landscape with the assistance of William Sawrey Gilpin. Scotney Castle Garden was eventually left to the National Trust by Edwards grandson Christopher on his death in 1970.

This is a view of some rhododendrons in the Quarry Garden

The garden has good displays of colour through most of the seasons, starting with carpets of spring flowers followed by massed clumps of rhododendrons, bluebell woodland and the intense blue of Hydrangeas in late summer, finally the rich autumnal foliage of reds and golds. The estate covers some 770 acres comprising mixed woodland, park and meadows.