Benmore Botanic Garden

Located between Dunoon and Loch Eck the Garden was once part of an extensive plant and painting collector called James Duncan land and was first Established in 1863.

The garden covers around 120 acres and boasts Giant Redwoods that stand over fifty metres high and over one hundred and fifty years old as well as over three hundred species of rhododendron and over one third of the world’s conifer species.

Victorian Fernery

Outside of the Botanic Garden is a large car park with plenty of space for coaches and cars in order to enter the garden visitors must pay a small fee at the gift shop:

• Adult £6
• Concession £5
• Under 16s free of charge

One of the amazing views

The garden is open for the majority of the year, only closing November – February. The best time to go to these gardens is on a dry day as you will be doing a lot of walking if you plan to see it all. When we went it was on an extremely warm day and even though there were plenty of trees that provided shade we still ended up sunburned. That did not ruin the day though as we managed to cover the majority of the locations on the map that you are supplied with on admittance. If you were to visit this place it would be in your best interest to stick to the map and paths as due to the size of the place it is incredibly easy to become lost. If you do happen to get lost there are plenty of maps posted throughout the garden informing you of your current location.

Stuart inside the Victorian Fernery

While we were walking around the garden we seen plenty of wildlife however they were difficult to capture on camera. We did manage to get pictures of newts and crickets.

One of the many crickets we spotted

Due to the majority of the visitors being elderly we found that a lot of the walks were empty and peaceful as they tended to stay near the entrance were the ponds and benches are located. So if you ever find yourself in this area the Benmore Botanic Garden would be worth your time.

If you want to see more images please visit the Gallery page.