Best of Angus Gardens

After breakfast we visit the walled gardens at Logie House, a herbalists's garden set amid an 18th century walled garden and large Victorian greenhouse within Logie's organic farm. Featuring more than          150 herbs, the physick garden is divided into eight rectangles including medicinal herbs for different body systems. All the herbs are labelled with a brief description of actions to help novices learn more about this ancient art. The garden also features a herbaceous border and a productive fruit and vegetable garden.

We continue to Glamis Castle, which has been the ancestral home of the Earls of Strathmore for over 600 years and was the childhood home of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. There are superb displays of rhododendrons and azaleas in early summer and a delightful Italian garden filled with the scent of flowers. Lunch is available here (not included).

In the afternoon we visit the nearby private garden of Torwood, a small attractively laid-out country garden striving towards year-round interest, enjoyment and relaxation through association and succession planting of trees, shrubs, herbaceous, perennials and bulbs. The garden is separated into rooms focusing on different colour schemes and styles including a small woodland area, mixed borders and prairie-style planting.

We begin today at Edzell Castle, which was once home to the Earls of Crawford. The garden is defined by the 'Pleasance' - a delightful formal garden with walls decorated with sculptured stone panels, flower boxes and niches for nesting birds.

In the afternoon we visit to gardens close to our base in Montrose. Set overlooking Montrose Basin, Langley Park Gardens include four walled gardens, three filled with herbaceous borders, fruit trees and vegetable plots, while the fourth is a small arboretum. There are also woodland walks among both ancient and recently planted trees and a wildflower meadow along the banks of the wildlife pond, with great views over Montrose, the Basin and the hills beyond.

We continue to Dunninald, a family home built in 1824, set in policies developed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It offers many attractive features including a beech avenue planted around 1670. The highlight of Dunninald is the walled garden planted with traditional mixed borders, vegetables, soft fruits, fruit trees and a greenhouse.

Following breakfast we check out of the hotel and visit the garden at Pitmuies House, near Forfar. The flower garden is situated behind the house, where in an old walled garden, lavishly planted borders are planned to maintain their flowering interest over a very long season. Colour schemes are fastidiously chosen here - a double border, for example, seen from the drawing room has a scheme of blue, cream, white and yellow to go with the colours of the room. Beyond the walled gardens a riverside walk leads past a castellated dovecote through an old woodland of marvellous beeches and oaks under-planted with ornamental shrubs – look out for the beautiful Acer griseum.

We conclude our tour with a visit to Gardyne Castle, which after a turbulent history of battles with the neighbouring Guthries, is now surrounded by an enchanting garden created by its current owners over the past 16 years. The castle’s extraordinary stone-capped turrets overlook a long romantic double border, while the southern front is complemented by a large enclosed knot garden of box and yew mixed with white roses and lavender. Beyond is an immaculate formal lawn surrounded by yew topiaries and specimen trees, with a gentle path leading down through an orchard. To the north, a new upper garden, centred on an extraordinary pepper pot doocot, provides an area for quiet contemplation with white planting, a fishpond and the family’s collection of chickens.

Following this we continue our homeward journey and expect to arrive back at our original departure point in the early evening.