Glenarn Garden

One of the Glorious Gardens of Argyll & Bute, Glenarn comes as a surprise – a 12 acre West Coast garden in the middle of Rhu.

Laid out in the 1850s with a network of winding paths through a Himalayan glen, the garden is full of interesting shrubs and trees that thrive in this protected and magical site on the hillside overlooking the Gareloch.

Along with the daffodils, magnolias and species rhododendrons come into flower in early spring, lasting until June when attention turns to the midsummer displays of philadelphus, hoherias and climbing roses. By late summer towering white euchryphias dominate the garden, the first hint of autumn and the colouring leaves of maples and azaleas.

Glenarn Glen view Image © S. Thornley, Glenarn Garden.

Glenarn Silent Space. Image © S. Thornley, Glenarn Garden.

Glenarn meconopsis. Image © S. Thornley, Glenarn Garden.

Glenarn Greenhouse Image © S. Thornley, Glenarn Garden.

Much restoration and new planting has taken place in recent years: there is a working vegetable garden with bees nearby, a greenhouse and shadehouse and an extensive rock garden, an inner garden full of smaller treasures and fenced from the roe deer. At the top of the garden is our Silent Space where visitors can sit, away from phones and the world outside.

Open under Scotland’s Gardens Scheme everyday from 21 March to 21 September, dawn to dusk.