CROWNING GLORIES

Scone Palace was once home to the Scone Stone - the crowning seat of Scottish kings. It also boasts a wonderful walled kitchen garden. Gardening writer Janice Hopper paid a visit to meet head gardener Brian Cunningham 

-  Janice Hopper

Scone Palace is primarily recognised as the crowning place of Scottish kings at the celebrated Moot Hill. Monarchs, from King Robert the Bruce to King Charles II, were destined for Scone. But, for green-fingered guests, the palace’s rich interiors, chapel and replica Stone of Destiny are a mere preamble to the palace’s 100 acres of grounds and flourishing kitchen garden. 

According to old gardening magazines of the 1800s, the original kitchen garden featured paths lined with pyramid-trained fruit trees and a north wall festooned with well-trained ‘Morello’ cherries. Today’s modern gardening team, led by the Beechgrove Garden’s Brian Cunningham, is working to bring this area back to life – including plant sales, nursery, and apple and pear orchards trained in a pyramid fashion – but most guests make a beeline for the current edible garden annexed to the old kitchen garden.

Brian told me: “We have been growing our veg for the palace since around 2013, supplying mostly the coffee shop and also functions. Here we grow a good variety of crops. During the early years we started off in functional ridge and furrow rows before moving to a more ornamental feel with square plots. The potential here is much more decorative, i.e. companion planting, which allows us to bring colour to the garden. We also have a cut flower plot which is used for table decorations.