Prize Historic Gardens
Gillian Mawrey looks at the Scottish prizewinners for historic garden conservation and restoration
The Historic Gardens Foundation has just presented its new Prize after a competition in Scotland for the best restoration of an architectural element in a historic park or garden. The winner of a cheque for £2,500 was the Victorian Fernery at Ascog Hall on the Isle of Bute.
When Wallace and Katherine Fyfe bought Ascog Hall twenty years ago, the fernery was so derelict and choked with brambles they did not at first realise what was there. Just one specimen fern survived to suggest the original purpose of the structure. With its mountainous rhizome over 1.5 metres high, this Todea barbara, which may be over 1,000 years old and probably arrived in Scotland from its native South Africa via Australia, is now the highlight of the rebuilt fernery.
Before rebuilding could begin, however, 16 tons of decayed leaves and broken glass had to be removed, all the time taking care to protect the original pebble mosaic paths which lay hidden and almost intact under the debris.
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