It has been a busy month at Kemnay House preparing for our first open weekend since 2019: restocking the gallery, tidying rooms and inspecting archives, restoring a Georgian window in the drawing room and, finally, keeping up with the gardening.
With warmth and intermittent rain throughout the month everything has started growing at pace. First, the rhododendrons put on a formidable show at the front of the house, turning deep green bushes into frothy white clouds buzzing with bees. Then our irises bloomed big and bold, followed by our flouncy peonies, resembling upside-down tutus.
The sweet peas are also budding continuously, giving me plenty of cut flowers to decorate the house for visitors. Their heavenly scent is filling rooms that have now been shuttered for over a year...
All the beds that surround the house were designed and planted by Susan Burnett, 9th of Kemnay, in the later half of the 20th century. She successfully developed the gardens to add colour and interest around the house, where there used only to be grassland and gravel.
I think she would be very happy to see her irises, peonies, rhododendrons and roses still blooming after decades of care.
We look forward to finally being able to open those shutters and share the garden with you, as part of the tours available to book through this website. We are open this Saturday, Sunday and Monday with tours at 11am, 12.45pm and 2.30pm. Due to number restrictions, guides will be able to give a more personalised tour and there will be plenty of time to explore our collections, enjoy the artwork in the gallery and (of course) stroll around our garden.