My first visit to Gordon Castle, Fochabers for the wedding of the crazy and unconventional Emma & Struan. 😜. They chose the beautiful walled garden for the ceremony, with a lovely backdrop of maturing flowerbeds 💐🌸🏵️and a 100m long aisle for the bridal proccession! 😮. They laughed and joked throughout the ceremony, had a right old carry-on, ensuring everyone was relaxed and had fun fun fun. Congratulations Mr & Mrs Robertson. That was a good one! And a great choice as a wedding venue.
Gordon Castle Estate, Walled Garden and the Gordon Castle Scotland brand are the results of eight years hard work by Angus and Zara Gordon Lennox since they took over the running of the Estate in 2008. Completed as one of Scotland’s largest houses in the 1770s by the Duke of Gordon, Gordon Castle is the spiritual home of the House of Gordon, one of Scotland’s oldest families. The estate nestles in the Spey valley, in the heart of whisky country, with a stretch of the Spey River running through the estate, which boasts some of the best salmon fishing in the world. The castle was used during the Great War as an auxiliary hospital for soldiers returning from the front and was then sold back to the Crown in 1938 following two successive deaths leaving the family with unmanageable death duties to pay. It fell into disrepair before being ‘rescued’ by war hero and much loved soldier Lieutenant General Sir George Gordon Lennox (grandson of the 7th Duke of Richmond and Gordon) after World War Two. He was forced to knock down much of the original house due to dry and wet rot, but he and his wife began the loving restoration, which Angus Gordon Lennox (Grandson of Sir George) and his wife Zara, continue today. Upon arrival they decided that an estate of such historical importance and significance had to be brought into the 21st century and was in dying need of renovation. The traditional activities of farming, accommodation and fishing are not enough to sustain it in the long term. A major diversification programme was needed. It was decided that the once traditional sporting Estate was to be transformed into a multi-faceted attraction for the community and visitors alike. Today, the Estate offers exclusive use accommodation in the Castle, self-catering holiday cottages, world-class salmon fishing, Walled Garden visitor attraction, natural children’s play area and a café serving delicious fresh food from the garden and local suppliers. The Walled Garden is an ongoing £1.2 million restoration and renovation project to breathe life back into this historic Scottish treasure. At over eight acres, the Garden is one of the largest in the country and once restored will be the largest fully productive walled garden in Scotland. Leading UK garden designer Arne Maynard has drawn up the design for its contemporary restoration. In its heyday, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, it provided an abundance of fruit, vegetables, cut flowers and herbs for the Castle and Estate, and employment for many local people. It was laid mainly to raspberries in the 1950s and run as a commercial soft fruit farm during the latter half of the last century. In its best years over fifty tons of fruit were harvested. Eventually it became uneconomic and has since been kept on a low maintenance programme to preserve its integrity and the 249 espaliered fruit trees that line the walls. When Angus and Zara Gordon Lennox started the renovation back in 2013 the site was an overgrown field. Since then, the 15th century plot has been painstakingly restored. It's simply gorgeous now.

a springtime north-west highland beach ceremony...