Hatton Castle - Gardens

Gardens

No record exists of the original gardens of Hatton Castle, but a house of this scale would certainly have had fine gardens in the 16th and 17th centuries. The buildings of Hatton Farm probably stand on what was originally a garden to the south of Hatton Castle. Until the 1990s when the current owner took it on, Hatton Castle stood in a gently sloping field full of sheep, cattle and a gaggle of geese from the adjacent curling pond. Sir James Cayzer, from the neighbouring Kinpurnie Estate planted standard trees in the surrounding parkland, and a garden is now emerging for Hatton Castle, featuring dry-stane dyking up to three metres high. This is the work of master-dyker Duncan Armstrong. An orchard of ancient Scottish apple varieties has been planted, as well as mulberry trees, and the sunken vegetable garden contains fig trees and artichokes. The eastern boundary of the garden of Hatton Castle is the Dundee and Newtyle Railway, which was the first railway line to open in the north of Scotland. It was built to transport daffodil and other flowers grown in farms around Newtyle to Dundee, and thence by ship to Edinburgh. The 'bulb factory' was adjacent to Newtyle station, which still exists.