Galloway House Gardens

About Galloway House Gardens

The Gardens and the House were constructed in the 1740’s for Lord Alexander Garlies, who became 6th Earl of Galloway. He was advised in the landscaping of the policies by Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, who was a noted authority on house and garden design. The 7th Earl was influenced in his taste for parkland by Capability Brown. Expenditure on the estate, by these and successive Earls, led to financial difficulties and the eventual sale of the estate in 1908. The Gardens are now operated by an independent charitable trust. The woodland contains main fine specimen trees, some of which were planted in the 18th Century, as well as early hybrid rhododendron and a famed “Handkerchief Tree” which flowers in late spring. This was planted by Neil MacEachern, owner of the estate before World War II, who later developed notable gardens at the Villa Taranto in Italy. The walled gardens are currently closed, but were once famed for fruit production. The sandy beach is a favoured place with local people for swimming suitable for small children, because the bay shelves very gradually. During World War II, however, this bay and the harbour at Garlieston were a hive of secret military activity, as the Mulberry Harbours, needed for the Normandy Landings, were tested here, because of the swift Solway tides, which resembled those of Normandy.