It says a lot about the lure of a garden that over the last year some of the biggest rises in visitor figures in Scotland have been at garden paradises like Inverewe, Crathes and Pitmedden. They provide an escape from our busy lives, a jolt of sensual pleasure.

Here, to celebrate the rise in popularity of the Scottish garden, are fifteen of the best gardens across Scotland, some of them wild, some secret, others private, others open to the public through the Scotland’s Gardens scheme, but all of them are dazzlingly grand.

A taste of the sub-tropics

1. Inverewe Gardens, Wester Ross

There’s something surreal about finding this oasis of all that is alien and exotic, thriving here in the north west of Scotland, on the shores of Loch Ewe. On a rugged coastline, washed by the gulf stream, Osgood Mackenzie, in 1862, created this paradise of sub-tropical plants which now includes the most northerly planting of rare Wollemi pines, Tasmanian eucalypts and olearia from New Zealand. Inverewe reopened in 2015, to much rapture, and has since been nominated as garden of the year in the Countryfile awards. Visitor numbers keep growing. So get a shift on - before the shores of Loch Ewe start to feel as mobbed as the Royal Mile during the Edinburgh Fringe.

Open daily, nts.org.uk

2. Ascog Hall, Isle of Bute

Back in the Victorian era there was a craze, a mania, for fern-hunting. The magnetic draw of this three acre garden on the Isle of Bute is part of that story - a captivating Victorian fernery. Its sunken glasshouse structure conjures up some lost, Jurassic world. Built in 1870 by Edward La Trobe Bateman who designed the botanic garden in Melbourne, Australia, it later fell into dilapidation. Among the plants which populate it now, however, is a 1000 year old King Fern, Britain’s oldest exotic fern. A true survivor, planted there in the 19th century, it clung on when the fernery fell into disuse, and lingered on as the only original plant when it was reconstructed in 1997.

Open daily, ascogfernery.com

The Big Spaces

3. Pollok Country Park, Glasgow

It’s hard to choose between parks in the dear green place, but Pollok Country Park, voted Europe’s best park in 2008, has it all: 360 acres of woodland and open countryside, Highland cattle, a house often described as “Scotland’s answer to Downton Abbey”, the White Cart river and more. Ramble, mountain bike, picnic, explore the maze, fret that the Burrell collection isn’t open till 2020, or just loll in the grass.

Open 24 hours every day

4. Culzean Castle Garden, Ayrshire

It’s hard to beat Culzean, perched there on a cliff over the Firth of Clyde, for dramatic aspect, or the architectural wow factor of Robert Adams’ 18th century castle. General Dwight Eisenhower is quoted as saying, when he was staying at Culzean “This is a place I can relax”. And relaxing is certainly something that can be done in the 560 acres that is the Culzean country park, admiring at the fountains, chilling in the walled garden, striding along the woodland walks, or just gazing at the trees as your kids play in the new Adventure Cove playpark – a mini castle to clamber over, inspired by the original.

Open daily, nts.org.uk

Garden Cures

5. Dr Neil’s Garden, Edinburgh

Tucked at the foot of Arthur’s Seat, next to a 12 century kirk, in the quaint town-village of Duddingston, is Edinburgh’s most charming and original horticultural haven, sometimes referred to as Edinburgh’s Secret Garden. On land that sweeps down to Duddingston loch, formerly grazed by calves and geese, two doctors, Andrew and Nancy Neil, set to work, in 1963, creating a garden. They encouraged their patients to assist, believing gardening-work to be health-enhancing, particularly so in this idyllic setting. The garden is criss-crossed by tiny paths. In one corner it houses Thomson’s Tower, designed by William Henry Playfair.

Open daily, drneilsgarden.co.uk

6. Redhall Walled Garden, Edinburgh

Gardening is good for us. Studies have shown that even just being in nature enhances our health and wellbeing. This 18th century walled garden, is more than just a soul-refresher for those who visit. It’s also an active working garden tended collaboratively by people recovering from mental health problems. Managed by the Scottish Association for Mental Health, and run on organic principles, at its core is a belief in the therapeutic benefits of working on the land. Watch for insects in its bee and butterfly garden, take in the scents of the herb garden, visit the Georgian Palladium Summerhouse.

Open weekdays, 9-3.30pm

Art Gardens

7. Little Sparta, Borders

Beautiful, stirring and thought-provoking, this garden created, over thirty years, by artist Ian Hamilton Finlay, nestles at the edge of the Pentlands. Hamilton Finlay once said, “Superior gardens are composed of glooms and solitudes and not just plants and trees.” And there are plenty of both in these 6.8 acres, which are an epic, living poem, scattered with sculpture, filled with words and messages. It is a place of light and ecstasy.

Open from June 7, Wednesdays, Fridays, Sundays, and some Saturdays, 12.30-5pm, littlesparta.org.uk

8. Jupiter Artland, West Lothian

Not just a garden, but a sculpture garden, in which, each year, stunning new artworks bloom among the long-term perennials. At its heart is Charles Jencks’ Cells of Life, curving earthworks and pools carved out of the soil to create an alien landscape, plus works by Antony Gormley, Andy Goldsworthy, Anya Gallacio and others. Created by Robert and Nicky Wilson in the grounds of their Jacobean home it is a captivating blending of nature and art. Nicky Wilson last year said, “Jupiter Artland is meant to be magic. People’s lives need a little bit of Wonderland.”

Currently open Thursday-Sunday. Open all days in July and August, jupiterartland.org

Grand Designs

9. Pitmedden Garden, Aberdeenshire

A garden for those who long for the surety of geometry in a chaotic world. No less than six miles of clipped box hedging, 30,000 bedding plants, and parterres (flat beds) - which glow, in their blooming months, with vivid designs, some of them heraldic - are what make Pitmedden, a widely renowned masterpiece of renaissance gardening. The garden was first laid out in 1675 by Alexander Seton, and was reconstructed, according to original plans in the 1950s. Everything is meticulously in its place.

Open daily, nts.org.uk

10. Crathes Castle Garden, Aberdeenshire

Like chess pieces that have sagged or melted, grown flabby around the middle, the huge yew tree topiary at Crathes Castle, are among its main attractions, and all the more wonderful for the way they seem a little organic. The hedges date from 1702, and frame a 16th century baronial tower. Also in the grounds, for those with a yen for swinging in the trees, is a Go Ape adventure trail.

Gardens open daily, nts.org.uk

11. Drummond Castle, Perthshire

Outlander fans might spot that the fabulously ornate formal gardens of Drummond castle were used as a stand-in for the gardens at the Palace of Versailles. But these world-renowned gardens are far from being Versailles wannabes – they have too much of their own distinctive character, and distinctly Alice in Wonderland type feel. Their 16th century formality is quirkily loosened-up by topiary that lunges and leans, like giant fingers up from the ground. Here is a garden in which it feels anything could happen – including falling down a rabbit-hole. There is even a kitchen garden from which produce can be purchased.

Open daily through summer. 1pm-6pm in May, then 11am-6pm thereafter, drummondcastlegardens.co.uk

Wild things

12. Cambo Estate, Fife

The particularly quirky thing about Cambo, said to be one of the finest walled gardens in Scotland is that it slopes down from its walls to a central rocky burn, which is spanned, not only by cast-iron bridges, but a Victorian greenhouse. There’s a wild, shaggy, naturalistic feel to the garden, which gardener, Elliot Forsyth, inspired by Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf, has planted with grasses and perennials.

Open daily, camboestate.com

13. Ardkinglas Woodland Garden, Argyll

Not only does this rolling woodland overlooking Loch Fyne contain the mightiest conifer in Europe, a silver fir with a girth of nearly ten metres, it also has a “Scriptorium” gazebo decorated with literary quotes, and, for those who believe there is such a thing as a Gruffalo, the only Gruffalo trail in Scotland.

Open daily, ardkinglas.com

Private Treasures

14. Shepherd House Garden, East Lothian

Scottish field described this personal garden, created by owners Sir Charles and Lady Ann Fraser, who is a botanical artist, as “one of the top ten small gardens in Scotland”. An acre in size, it nestles in the 18th century village of Inveresk. For those who like a nosey in the lives of others.

Open on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons till mid-July, shepherdhousegarden.co.uk

15. The Lookout, Inverness

A triumph over gravity, this steeply-sloped elevated private garden, which looks out over the Moray Firth, is a lesson in how to create something breathtaking out of a rocky piece of hill. Scree, shrubs, a tumble of plants, and a lily pond, all feature. Created by David and Penny Veitch, who developed it out of the wilderness that rose up from their house, it has featured on Beechgrove Garden.

Open as part of the Scottish Garden’s scheme, Sundays, or by arrangement, scotlandsgardens.org

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