Tour of the Walled Garden at Hospitalfield House

Join Hospitalfield Head Gardener Kate Robinson for a tour of our new walled garden and fernery.

The walled garden, which has been designed by Garden designer and horticulturalist Nigel Dunnett and planted with the support of Hospitalfield’s amazing team of dedicated volunteers, has been designed within Hospitalfield’s 19th Century Walled Garden to respond to the 800 years of garden history on the site with its monastic roots going back to the 13th century.

The Fernery at Hospitalfield was designed in 1872 by Patrick Allan-Fraser as a grotto-like building intended to house a collection of New Zealand tree ferns that were presented to him by Captain Peter Logan. The building fell into ruinous disrepair during the mid-20th-century, and has now become part of an exciting new chapter for the Walled Garden, sensitively restored to its former glory under the guidance of architects Caruso St John.

It has been replanted with the help of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh with the varieties of ferns likely to have been in the original, including a number of tree ferns.