Gardens with Water

19 Feb

Gardens with Water

Venue: Room LT2, Dalhousie Building (corner of Old Hawkhill and Hunter Street), University of Dundee, DD1 4EN
Time: 18:00 – 21:00
Cost: Free

THE DUNDEE CONSERVATION LECTURES 2018
Arranged by the AHSS Tayside & East Fife Group; Dundee Historic Environment Trust and the University of Dundee postgraduate programmes in architectural conservation.

The history and restoration of Ella Christie’s Japanese Garden at Cowden Castle
Kate White, head gardener

Spirit of place, or intangible aspects of gardens and landscapes
Dr Peter Burman MBE FSA, arts and heritage consultant, conservationist, architectural historian

Kate White is head gardener at Cowden, responsible for the current garden restoration. She will give a brief history of Japanese gardens in the UK, and of how the Japanese Garden at Cowden Castle, near Dollar, was developed in the early 1900s by Ella Christie. It was isolated after the mansion was abandoned, then vandalised and fell into decay in the late 1950s, but long anticipated restoration plans by Ella’s twice-great niece received grant assistance. Kate will tell the story of its return to glory and of some of the challenges and opportunities of maintaining a Japanese garden in Scotland. The garden trust intends it to open to the public on 5th May, 63 years after its last opening.

Peter Burman is an architectural historian with a special interest in the Arts and Crafts movement and historic gardens. He has taught at the universities of York, Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand) and Cottbus, Germany. He was Director of the Council for the Care of Churches/Cathedrals Fabric Commission at an earlier stage of his career and later Director of Conservation of the National Trust for Scotland. He lives in Falkland where he is Chairman of the Falkland Stewardship Trust.

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