Summer is just getting started and some of this country’s greatest gardens are getting into their stride. Scotland has no shortage of glorious, green spaces just waiting to be discovered and now is the time to start exploring some of the exciting places across the country and the events that are taking place as part of Discover Scottish Gardens’ Summer Garden Festival.

SOLSTICE CELEBRATIONS
What better way to mark the longest day of summer on 21 June than by searching out some amazing sundials. Scotland is home to a unique collection of multi-faceted sundials, created in the 17th and 18th centuries that are still marking our sunshine hours today.

Find them at Drummond Castle in Perthshire, Dunvegan Castle in Skye, Pitmedden Garden in Aberdeenshire and Mount Stuart on Bute. And for something even more ancient, the lunar calendar, created from pits dug around Crathes Castle in 8,000 BC, is believed to be the oldest timepiece in the world.

Scottish Gardener:

BE AMAZED
Lose yourself this summer in a special sort of green space, where all of your senses are needed in order to find the way out again. Children love these leafy puzzles and adults too can lose themselves happily amongst their twists and turns.The Murray Star Maze at Scone Palace, made from alternating green and copper beech hedges, takes its inspiration from the Earl of Mansfield’s family tartan, while the circular yew maze at Dumfries House in Cumnock has an oriental theme.

Explore the living willow maze at Falkland Palace in Fife and  trip through the grass maze at Ballindalloch Castle, where you only need to hop across the daisies to escape.

Scottish Gardener:

PICK YOUR SPOT
Being outdoors works up an appetite, so here are some of the best places to unpack your picnic. At Glenwhan Garden, with its lakes, moorland walk and arboretum, you can tuck into your sandwiches while enjoying breathtaking views over the Solway Firth. At Pitmuies Garden near Forfar, you can cool your ginger beer bottles in the Vinny Water, before enjoying a refreshing drink amongst tulip trees and paperbark maples. Or why not shelter from the winds that whip across the Pentland Firth and enjoy the romantic planting that flourishes behind the high walls of the Castle of Mey?

Scottish Gardener:

TAKE YOUR SEAT
From classic tales to childhood favourites, there’s all kinds of outdoor theatre taking place in Scotland’s gardens this summer. On Saturday, 23 June the curtain will go up on A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Teasses in Fife, and The Gunpowder Plot, which will be staged on 3 July, is the first in a season of productions that includes Peter Rabbit and Jayne Eyre, that will be staged at Cawdor Castle near Nairn.

For more information on these and other events visit www.discoverscottishgardens.org.