Day three

Today we visited the well-known garden at Crathes Castle, near Banchory. Immaculate as always and with plenty of colour,  especially in the June Border. It was good to meet my old pal Chris, the Head Gardener. I hate the idea of losing contact with all my old colleagues.

After lunch we went on to the charming private garden at Finzean House, pronounced 'Fing-en'. We were shown round by the equally charming private owner, Katrina. Not a large garden, but an attractive one - the thumbnail shows a novel use for a dead tree!

Our final visit of the day was to Kincardine Castle, 'one of Scotland's finest Victorian castles' set in a 3,000 acre estate overlooking Royal Deeside. A lot of the garden is fairly new and not particularly wonderful in my humble opinion, but quite interesting in its own way. The house truly deserves the description of a pile - it's a huge place!