About
Pitmedden Garden, near Ellon in Aberdeenshire, is one of Scotland's most celebrated formal gardens, built around a spectacular recreation of a seventeenth-century parterre garden that ranks among the finest examples of this historic garden style anywhere in Britain. The original garden at Pitmedden was laid out from 1675 by Sir Alexander Seton, a prominent local landowner and Lord of Session, who created an ambitious formal garden in the fashionable Continental style of the period, with elaborate geometric parterres — patterned beds bordered by clipped hedging and filled with coloured planting or gravel to create intricate visual designs when viewed from above or from the raised terraces surrounding the garden.
This original seventeenth-century garden was tragically destroyed by fire in 1818, and for well over a century the site lost its most celebrated feature, surviving only through documentary and pictorial records of its former grandeur.
The National Trust for Scotland acquired Pitmedden in 1952, and in one of the Trust's most ambitious historic garden recreation projects, undertook to recreate the destroyed parterres during the 1950s and 1960s, drawing on surviving seventeenth-century garden plans, comparative research into contemporary Scottish and Continental formal gardens, and specific inspiration from the royal parterre gardens at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, themselves representative of the same period style.
The recreated parterres at Pitmedden use clipped box hedging to form intricate geometric patterns, several of which directly reference the heraldic devices of the Seton family coat of arms, translating armorial design into living garden form in a manner characteristic of the most ambitious seventeenth-century formal gardens.
Each summer, the parterres are filled with an extraordinary quantity of bedding plants — around 40,000 annual plants are used to create the vivid seasonal colour display that fills the geometric beds, a considerable horticultural undertaking that requires meticulous planning and planting each year to achieve the garden's full visual effect during the summer viewing season.
Beyond the celebrated parterres, which form the garden's centrepiece and the feature for which it is most widely known, the wider Pitmedden estate includes a Museum of Farming Life housed within the estate's historic farm steading, displaying a substantial collection of historic agricultural equipment, tools, and rural life exhibits that document the changing character of farming in North East Scotland from the pre-mechanisation era through to more recent agricultural history.
The estate also includes herbaceous borders providing colour and interest beyond the formal parterres, an apple orchard maintained with historic fruit varieties, and woodland walks through the wider grounds. This combination of an internationally significant recreated formal garden, a substantial agricultural heritage museum, and varied wider grounds gives Pitmedden a breadth of interest that extends well beyond garden enthusiasts alone, making it a rewarding visit for anyone interested in Scottish social and agricultural history alongside horticultural design and garden history.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Visit between May and September to see the parterres at their peak — the summer bedding display of around 40,000 plants is the garden's defining feature and is not present outside the growing season.
- Climb to the raised terraces surrounding the parterre garden for the best view of the full geometric pattern — the design is intended to be appreciated from above as much as from ground level.
- Allow time for the Museum of Farming Life in the old farm steading — it is included in admission and offers a substantial change of pace from the formal garden.
- Look for the heraldic designs within the parterre patterns, which reference the Seton family coat of arms — a guide or interpretation panel can help identify the specific heraldic elements.
- The garden is at its most photogenic in bright summer sunlight, which brings out the full colour contrast of the bedding plants against the clipped box hedging.
- NTS members should bring their membership card for free entry; reciprocal National Trust (England) membership also applies.
- Combine with a visit to nearby Haddo House, another National Trust for Scotland property in the same part of Aberdeenshire, for a fuller day of NTS heritage.
- Check opening dates carefully if visiting outside the main May–September season, as the garden's core seasonal appeal means opening is limited or closed at other times of year.
Highlights
The Recreated Seventeenth-Century Parterres
The centrepiece of Pitmedden Garden is its spectacular recreation of the seventeenth-century formal parterre garden originally laid out by Sir Alexander Seton from 1675, destroyed by fire in 1818, and painstakingly recreated by the National Trust for Scotland during the 1950s and 1960s following its acquisition of the property in 1952.
The recreation drew on surviving seventeenth-century garden plans and research into comparable contemporary Scottish and Continental formal gardens, resulting in an intricate geometric design of clipped box hedging that ranks among the finest examples of this historic garden style in Britain. Viewed from the raised terraces surrounding the garden, the full complexity of the parterre patterns becomes apparent in a way that is not visible from ground level, and this elevated viewing experience is one of the defining features of a Pitmedden visit.
The Seton Family Heraldic Designs
Several of the recreated parterre patterns at Pitmedden directly reference the heraldic devices of the Seton family coat of arms, translating armorial design into living garden form in a manner characteristic of the most ambitious seventeenth-century formal gardens, where garden design was used as a deliberate expression of family status and identity.
This heraldic dimension gives the Pitmedden parterres a specific historical and genealogical meaning beyond pure decorative pattern-making, connecting the garden directly to Sir Alexander Seton, the Lord of Session who created the original garden from 1675, and to the wider tradition of using garden design to express aristocratic and landed identity in the period immediately following the Restoration in Scotland.
The Summer Bedding Display
Each summer, the parterres at Pitmedden are filled with an extraordinary quantity of bedding plants — approximately 40,000 annual plants are used to create the vivid seasonal colour display that fills the intricate geometric beds during the main visitor season from May to September. This is a considerable horticultural undertaking requiring meticulous annual planning, propagation, and planting to achieve the full visual effect, and the specific combinations of colour and plant variety are refreshed each year, meaning that no two summers at Pitmedden produce an identical display.
This scale of seasonal bedding is unusual even among National Trust for Scotland properties and represents one of the most ambitious ongoing horticultural displays in the Trust's portfolio.
The Museum of Farming Life
Housed within the historic farm steading on the Pitmedden estate, the Museum of Farming Life displays a substantial collection of historic agricultural equipment, tools, and rural life exhibits documenting the changing character of farming in North East Scotland from the pre-mechanisation era through to more recent agricultural history.
The collection includes horse-drawn implements, early tractors and machinery, dairying and crofting equipment, and displays on rural domestic life, giving visitors a rounded picture of the practical agricultural economy that underpinned estates like Pitmedden and the wider Aberdeenshire countryside across several centuries.
This substantial social and agricultural history collection significantly broadens Pitmedden's appeal beyond garden enthusiasts, and it is included within the standard admission price alongside the garden itself.
Collections
Pitmedden Garden's primary collection is the recreated seventeenth-century parterre garden itself — a living horticultural recreation based on surviving historical garden plans and comparative research, maintained by the National Trust for Scotland since the 1950s-1960s recreation project. The complementary Museum of Farming Life within the farm steading holds a substantial collection of historic agricultural equipment, tools, and rural life exhibits from North East Scotland, spanning the pre-mechanisation era through more recent agricultural history.
Together, the garden and museum present a combined horticultural design and agricultural social history experience unusual among Scottish garden properties.
The Museum of Farming Life
Historic agricultural equipment, tools, and rural life exhibits from North East Scotland, housed in the estate's historic farm steading.
Garden History Interpretation
On-site interpretation of Sir Alexander Seton's original 1675 garden, its destruction in 1818, and the National Trust for Scotland's 1950s-1960s recreation project.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.