Historic Angus houses to welcome visitors this weekend for charity

Dunninald’s policies, wild and walled gardens will be open this Sunday, with castle tours explaining the history of the house and its treasures. (Submitted)

Two stunning and contrasting historic Angus houses will open their gates to the public this weekend to raise money for Scotland’s Gardens Scheme.

Hospitalfield House at Arbroath will be open this Saturday (July 8) between 11am and 4pm, while Dunninald Castle, near Montrose will open the following day between 1pm and 5pm.

Dedicated to contemporary art and ideas, Hospitalfield is a place to work, study, learn, visit and enjoy. The walled gardens opened in 2021 after a comprehensive redesign by the celebrated garden designer and plantsman, Nigel Dunnett.

The site has been inhabited since the 12th century yet this is a new garden with so much potential. Nigel worked to a brief to tell 800 years of garden history through his design; from the monastic origins to current times and his great experience in sustainable and ‘naturalistic planting’. Our 2023 project is the Physic Garden which tells the story of monastic herbal and medicinal garden.

Two tours, have been organised, the first tour of the Physic Garden (meet in front of the Paolozzi sculpture at 12pm). This will centre around Hospitalfield's history as a monastic site in which medicinal herbs were cultivated

The second tour will take place at 3pm and will have an emphasis on Hospitalfield as a community - each tour will last approximately 30 to 45 minutes

Dunninald Castle was built in 1824 by the architect James Gillespie Graham in the Gothic Revival style. Guided tours explain the history of the house, the collections of furniture, paintings and displays of fine needlework photographs and memorabilia, examples of fine plasterwork and trompe l'oeil can also be seen. Tours take approximately 40 minutes and start on the hour and half hour. Pre-booking is essential.

Visitors are welcome to explore the 100 acres of woods, wild garden, policies and a walled garden. There is a children’s trail and homemade teas. A donation from the opening will also be made to the RNLI. For further information, visit www.scotlandsgardens.org or the Hospitalfield and Dunninald websites.