Tag Archives: Dumfries House

Dumfries House, Ayrshire

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Since we visited Dumfries House for the first time last month the house keeps popping up on TV. First it was featured in The Repair Shop, with King Charles. The yesterday it was on TV again with a documentary about how it was saved by the King who headed a consortium of like-minded people.

It was interesting to see the gardens being planned and constructed, but here are a few photos of how it looked in October, with the planting really coming on.

flowers, Dumfries House gardens, Ayrshire

If you ever are able to visit Dumfries House remember that the tours of the house are guided and you must pre-book.

Below is a photo of the steps leading to the Belvedere.

, Dumfries House, Ayrshire, Belvedere steps

The garden areas are coming on nicely.

Dumfries House garden, Ayrshire

garden, Dumfries House, belvedere

Dumfries House, Garden Arches

Probably the house below is /was for the head gardener.

garden house, Dumfries House gardens

The cute wee house below is in the kitchen garden. It’s my idea of a dream house, or certainly from a fairy tale. I/we could just move in, there wouldn’t be much to do in the way of housework, and it has a handy chimney!

Wee House, Dumfries House, Ayrshire

garden path, topiary, Dunfries House gardens, Ayrshire

Dumfries House Urn + Steps

It wasn’t great weather-wise when we were at Dumfries House so we didn’t spend a lot of time exploring the grounds, we’ll do more of that the next time. It does have a great play area for kids though, so it’s a place for all ages to enjoy

As ever, click on the photos if you want to enlarge them.

If you are interested in visiting the area you might like to look at the nearby small village of Maybole which you can read about here.

Dumfries House, Ayrshire, Scotland

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I’ve been meaning to visit Dumfries House for absolutely ages and last week we got around to it at last. I thought it would have taken us longer to get there, it was about a two hour drive from Fife, but we stayed in the area overnight so we would have plenty of time to look around. The house is part of the Prince’s Foundation, does it have to be called the King’s Foundation now? Anyway, the fine Georgian mansion was due to be auctioned off piece by piece and some furniture was actually in a London auction house, when the then Prince Charles stepped in and organised a financial rescue package for it. The name of the house is somewhat confusing as it isn’t near the town of Dumfries, it’s actually in Cumnock, Ayrshire. It was designed by the Adam brothers – Robert, John and James.

Dumfries House, Georgian mansion, Ayrshire, Scotland

Sadly they don’t allow people to take photos inside, suffice to say that it’s well worth a visit, it has all sorts of bits and pieces in it and glorious furniture, including Chippendale pieces, one cabinet is valued at £25 million! But I loved the clocks and the huge orrery which is 260 years old, so of course isn’t correct now.

Below is the back of the house, where the guided tour begins.

Back of Dumfries House, Georgian mansion

The whole place is incredibly vibrant with all sorts of things going on educationally with lots of apprenticeships available, and it is now the second largest employer in the county.

The Lugar Water runs through the estate and there are some lovely bridges spanning it. But I’ll leave that and the grounds for another blogpost.
Adam Bridge, Dumfries House, Georgian mansioen, Lugar Water tr

You can see the Education Tour in the You Tube video below.

If you’re interested in the history of the house you can read about it here.