"The Atholl Palace is one of my favourite places where each year we meet up with good friends and have fun. It's the perfect place to stay in a perfect setting with lovely people looking after us. What more could a person want?"
April 2007
It has been promised for a while and we have a putting green, now. After the heavy-duty scarifying, sanding, levelling, re-seeding etc the, potential, green looked a bit ragged in the early spring and some doubts were beginning to be expressed. Shame on the faint-hearted. It’s open and putting well, albeit quite challenging.
From time to time the gardeners go on a “jolly” to see other gardens, to source new plants, to try new machinery and other forms of hard work! Recently we were invited over to Dublin, by Fionn, to see two Japanese gardens.On our first evening we had a quick visit to the botanic gardens and the following day we travelled south.
Powerscourt, owned by the Slazenger family, was awesome. Expansive, formal gardens sloping down to a magnificent lake and surrounded by a stunning collection of mature, specimen trees with a Japanese-styled garden tucked away at the bottom in a reclaimed bog.
Lunch under a blue sky was followed by a trip across country to see the Irish National Stud where another, very different, Japanese garden exists. Cherry blossom, arching berberis, azaleas, rhododendrons, bamboos and much more were in their full glory. We were guided throughout by Mhairi, Fionn’s wife, and our grateful thanks go to both for inviting us over to their home and showing us great kindness. We have returned with many ideas for our own Japanese garden at the Palace and look forward to fleshing these out over the coming months.
Back home the Palace gardens are blossoming. After the warmest April on record things are looking well. Come and enjoy them either as a guest at the hotel or just for a visit. Innes
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