Stonefield Gardens

Stonefield Castle gardens lie sheltered and magnificently situated on the shores of Loch Fyne two miles above the village of Tarbert at the northern end of the Mull of Kintyre and on the main road to Campbeltown.  The gardens are thus easily reached by car and are open to residents and non residents all year round. 

Rhodondendrons

The array of Rhododendrons in the garden is impressive and includes many original Hooker introductions from the Himalayas.  This is an important historical collection shared by few others. 

Stonefield Castle has a unique attraction added to its own special charm in that here, more than in any other garden, is a reminder of the Himalayan scene, as one finds it not far from Darjeeling on the way from Sandakph to Phallut or on the Reichi La, one of the nine passes leading to Bhutan.  There Rhododendron forests occupy the slopes at altitudes of 9000 to 12000 feet. 

As Stonefield Castle, all the well-known Himalayan Species can be found.  Rhododendron arboreum, Rhododendron campanulatum, cinnabarinum, falconeri, grande, camplocarpum and triflorum.  Here they are at least as large and as vigorous as in their native land.  Furthermore, many of them seed and regenerate freely in the half shade of surrounding trees and on the mossy slopes.  Indeed, many of the parent plants at Stonefield Castle now long established are over 100 years old, having been raised from seed which Sir Joseph Hooker collected in Sikkim about 1849 -1850. 

Many of the older Rhododendrons were discovered by Sir Joseph whose father was the Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow and the owner of a small estate in Argyll.  He was a friend of the Campbell’s, who then owned Stonefield Castle.  Dr Campbell Oronsay, who accompanied Hooker on his Himalayan travels, was related to the Campbells of Stonefield and he too sent them seeds from his travels.  Dr John Campbell had just been appointed Superintendent of the Sanatorium at Darjeeling which had been opened as a hill station for Europeans, but the surrounding country was still unsettled and botanical collecting hazardous.  In fact, during one of the expeditions Dr Campbell was taken prisoner as we learn from the Himalayan journals. 

The climate at Stonefield Castle makes the exceptionally luxurious growth and this applies only to the rhododendrons but also to the other trees and shrubs which flourish in abundance.