A new entrance for Crathes Garden

Up to 2018, the entrance to the enchanting gardens at Crathes Castle had been via the main garden gate adjacent to the long West Wall. However, this was in fact never intended to be the main entrance to the garden; it was moved there when visitor numbers grew hugely in the mid-1980s. The original entrance was supposed to be through the small gate on the North Wall, or even by the (now missing) turret steps that were embedded in the Queen Anne wing, which sadly burnt down in the 1960s.

The entrance was temporarily moved to the garden between the impressive topiaries, but this soon became unworkable due to the number of steps. There are steps down to the croquet lawn, which in turn has a set of steps leading away from that area – this was not accessible for those with mobility issues visiting the garden, so everything moved to its current location. Even from its earliest days there was a small entrance box or sentry box where money was collected or memberships checked. The latter was made slightly better in the form of a shed!

The buildings were never quite satisfactory for the stature of the garden and in recent times access was becoming more open with fewer people paying for entry to the garden than ever. For example, in 2013/14 alone we recorded numbers of visitors through the garden gate at approximately 70,000! Something had to be done, both to make sure that visitors were being captured and revenue wasn’t lost, and to make a building more befitting of Crathes: a space to interpret the stories of the garden and its long and varied history.

A plan was conceived around six years ago, and thanks to the generosity of the Young family as major donors and supporters of the property, funds were allocated to work up a new design and concept for the entrance. Using in-house design skills and development input from the garden team, the following idea was decided on and planning submitted.