Lost garden unearthed at clifftop castle 250 years on
● Archaeologists find 18th-century remains at Culzean
A lost garden has been uncovered by archaeologists in the grounds of one of Scotland’s most iconic castles.
The walled enclosure, believed to date from the 18th century, was discovered during renovation works at Culzean castle in Ayrshire.
The remains of the large rectangular enclosure, measuring over 60m long by 30m wide, were buried beneath the clifftop fortress’s Fountain Court sunken gardens.
The structure is thought to have been created for Sir John Kennedy of Culzean, second Baronet, in 1733, when the garden at the foot of the terrace walls on the east side of the castle was extended.
This garden is shown on an estate map of Culzean drawn by John Foulis in 1755.
It is likely it functioned as an enclosed kitchen garden for the castle, with fruit trees lining the south-facing walls of the terraces.
The garden was abandoned in 1782 and the walls demolished as part of a major redesign of Culzean by renowned neoclassical architect Robert Adam.
As was the fashion in the late 18th century, the kitchen gar- den was moved away from the immediate view of the house and the site given over to wider views of the landscape.
A new walled garden was built to the south-east, just out of sight of the castle, with a date stone above the gate marked 1786.
It is likely that builders would have re-used stone from the original walled garden to create the existing one.
In the middle of the 19th century the area below the terraces was used as a bowling green before the large, ornate fountain was installed in 1876.
The area has since come to be known as Fountain Court.
Culzean castle was gifted to the National Trust for Scotland in 1945.
The site has a long history of human habitation, with previous discoveries dating back to prehistoric times.
The latest find was made as part of work to improve the drainage at the Fountain Court and to make it suitable for staging large public events.
“It is so exciting to see part of the original walled garden at Culzean,” said Derek Alexander, head of archaeology at the conservation charity.
“Although it was marked on the estate map, until now we never knew that any of it survived below the immaculate turf of the Fountain Court.
“This work has given us the perfect opportunity to explore a hidden aspect of Culzean’s past.”