PARKHEAD, ARGYLL


T


ucked away at the foot of the Rosneath Peninsula in Argyll is a garden so perfect in the design and structure of its topiary


that it would not look out of place in Italy. Rumours of this hidden jewel began to surface a couple of years ago. It was especially intrigu- ing to learn that this garden, far from being tended by an army of gardeners, is the work of just one man, architect Ian McKellar. Ian and his wife Susan bought Parkhead in


1970. ‘When we first saw the place it was dere- lict and had a romantic feel,’ says Ian. ‘But it had a walled garden.’ The only plant remaining was the fig tree that


still grows at the side of the wrought iron gate: it is through this gate that visitors first glimpse this exquisite garden and its first row of sculptured


Portuguese laurel, Prunus lusiticana ‘Variegata’. Parkhead was the former production garden


for nearby Rosneath Castle, the home of Prin- cess Louise, Dowager Duchess of Argyll, the artistic daughter of Queen Victoria. The Prin- cess often spent time at Rosneath and she clearly loved the place – when she was in London, she regularly had fruit from the garden ferried over Gare Loch and sent by overnight train to Kens- ington Palace until her death in 1939. For Glasgow-born Ian, whose first memory


of plants was the window boxes in the family’s tenement and the happy hours spent with his father, ‘an enthusiastic allotment owner’, the challenge presented by this space was irresist- ible. Later, Ian added a smaller walled area for vegetables and soft fruit.


‘It was derelict and had a romantic feel’


Above: Ian McKellar in the garden he created at Parkhead. Top left: The plants attract a range of butterflies. Below left: The McKellars also restored the burnt-out property. Previous page: Golden Yews add height.


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