Work starts on walled gardens project at Hospitalfield House

Construction work has started on a garden project at Arbroath’s historic Hospitalfield House.

It comes after the Aberbrothock Skea Trust awarded a grant of £25,000 to support the £1.5 million scheme.

The Garden and Garden Buildings Project is the first of a number of building phases being carried out by the Hospitalfield Trust.

George Dunlop from the Skea Trust said: “As one Arbroath trust to another, the trustees of the Aberbrothock Skea Trust are delighted to support the Hospitalfield Trust with their exciting plans to expand the cultural gem of Hospitalfield House and its grounds and give more facilities for both the artistic community and the visiting public.”

The project team are working with the renowned architectural practice Caruso St John on the revamp programme.

The renowned horticulturalist Nigel Dunnett is also heading to Arbroath to design Hospitalfield’s walled gardens.

Mr Dunnett’s brief is to tell 800 years of garden history through his designs.

The garden has seen great architectural shifts in its lifetime, from its earliest days as the ground of the original hospital built by the Tironesian Monks who ran Arbroath Abbey right up to the changes that Patrick Allan Fraser made as he designed and built the neo-Gothic country house.

The project will also see the restoration of the fernery and the creation of a small café tucked in to the south facing wall of the garden.

The fernery restoration is likely to be the most costly element of the project.