Ellon Castle Gardens
A historic walled garden in the heart of Ellon
- Open Tue–Sun
- 10am–4pm
- Adults £5
- Children free
- Dogs
- Welcome on leads
Ellon, Aberdeenshire
Nine acres. Centuries of stories. Right in the middle of Ellon.
Hidden behind old stone walls above the Health Centre are nine acres of garden, the ruins of a castle built around 1413, and a group of English yews reckoned to be at least 500 years old.
The walled garden and its nine-metre terrace were laid out in 1715 by an Edinburgh merchant with money to spend, and by the eighteenth century this was among the finest gardens in Scotland. Then it was let go for the better part of a century.
Since 2014 it has belonged to a community trust. Thirty years of neglected vegetation has been cleared, the walls made safe, services put in and the borders replanted — mostly by people who live in the town. It is quiet, it is central, and a surprising number of people in Ellon have never been through the gate.
What you'll find
02
The castle ruins
What remains of the Fortalice of Ardgith, with the Kennedy coat of arms still legible on the stone.
03
The walled garden
Laid out in 1715, with a terrace nine metres high cut out of the hillside. Three centuries of changes, and still the shape of the place.
The sundials
Carved dials on the main axis, among the garden's oldest movable pieces.
Wildlife
Red squirrels around the yews and the woodland edge; best early in the morning.
Seasonal colour
Snowdrops in February, blossom in May, borders all summer, apples in October.
Eight centuries leave a few stories behind.
1652
A dispute over a ditch ends in bloodshed.
The Kennedys of Ardgith and the Forbes of Waterton were neighbours, and by the seventeenth century they were relations as well. None of it helped. The argument was over a mill lade — the channel that carried water to a mill — and it ran on until both households turned out armed.
1787
The most famous man in Scotland gets no further than the gate.
Burns came through Ellon in 1787 on his tour of the north. He was, by the account handed down locally, refused entry to the castle — the Earl being unwilling to have visitors while Penelope was in residence.
Tradition
Tunnel, escape route or smuggler's shortcut?
A passage is said to run from the old castle down to the River Ythan. One version has it as an escape route for fleeing Jacobites. The likelier version is smuggling: brandy brought up the river by barge and carried underground into the castle.
Beneath the yews
Trees older than anyone can quite prove.
Nineteen English yews stand in the centre of the walled garden. They are reckoned to be at least 500 years old, and some estimates put the oldest at around 800 — which would place them here before the castle.
Planning a visit?
Opening
Tuesday–Sunday, 10am–4pm
Closed Mondays
Entry
- Adults£5
- ChildrenFree
- MembersFree
Dogs welcome on leads.
Facilities and access
- Toilets, accessible toilet and baby changing
- Disabled parking up the track past the Health Centre
- A wheelchair available to borrow at the Main Gate
- Flat, accessible paths throughout the Lower Garden
- The Terrace is reached by steps and is not yet wheelchair accessible
Coming up in the gardens
View all events →
Tuesday 25 August 2026
The Three Musketeers — Outdoor Theatre by Illyria
Dumas, outdoors, under the trees. Bring a rug, a chair and a coat.
Gates 6pm, performance 7pm · Booking through Illyria
Sunday 4 October 2026
Apple Day
Pressing, tasting, identifying — the orchard's one busy day of the year.
11am – 3pm · Normal admission
Friday 30 October 2026
Spooky Halloween Trail
The ruins after dark, a lantern-lit trail and a fair amount of shrieking.
6.30pm – 8.30pm · Ticketed
There's always a different garden waiting.
Spring snowdrops and blossom. Summer borders and roses. Autumn fruit and colour. Ancient evergreens through winter.
A garden brought back by its community.
When the Trust took the garden on in 2014 it had been left for around thirty years. The first job was simply getting through the vegetation to see what was underneath.
Since then: the walls made safe, drainage and services run through the site, the western border planted up in 2019, the garden opened to the public, an office taken in Ellon and the Deer Park brought back into the same ownership. It is ongoing work, carried out mostly on Wednesdays and Saturdays by people with their own secateurs.
Volunteer
Wednesdays and Saturdays, mostly. No experience needed, no rota to sign.
Become a member
Free entry all year, and a contribution towards the costs that fall due whether anyone visits or not.
Support the garden
Donations, legacies and memorial benches pay for specific pieces of work.
Help look after what comes next.
The yews will outlast all of us if the garden around them is kept going. Membership, volunteering and donations are what pay for the mowing, the mulch, the machinery and the slow repair of nine acres of walls and planting.
Benches in memory of someone can also be donated — ask us about a memorial bench.