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On arrival at Torosay, you will first be drawn to the magnificent gardens surrounding the castle. This is a real opportunity to see, smell and touch some really unique specimens and other very rare flowers, plants and trees. The gardens themselves are worthy of a visit in their own right.

The Torosay gardens are a result of many generations of foresight followed by hard work and lots of planting! Documentation goes back to around 1900, when Chris James’ great grandfather Murray Guthrie built the formal terraces and gazebos as well as importing the 19 famous statues from a deserted villa in Padua, Italy. Although there is no documentary evidence (yet!), it is rumoured that the famous Scottish architect Sir Robert Lorimer may have had an involvement in the design on view today. The formal gardens are so successful as a result of the extensive tree planting which is still very much in evidence. In fact, one of the biggest trees, a silver fir, is thought to pre date the castle itself.

It is thought that is was around 1900 that the Walled garden, originally designed to supply the estate with vegetables, was given over to decorative planting, parterres and herbaceous borders. The large pond which forms the central focus of the Water Garden also dates from around this time, the excavated soil being used in the formation of the formal terraces. The Rockery was another bi-product of the Terracing as it uses an outcrop of bedrock exposed by the terracing work

Many of the trees and shrubs on view today date back to the days of cheap and plentiful labour which ceased abruptly at the on set of war in 1939 although the Walled garden was given over to vegetable planting for the war effort.

The castle and gardens were used as a hotel after the war, when the gardens were somewhat neglected with the Rockery and Water Garden both becoming overgrown and silted up. By the time the castle and gardens reverted to being a family home in the 1950’s, the job of maintaining the garden became a major problem and proved too much to be done by just one family.