Benmore Botanic Garden

Benmore Botanic Garden is a botanical garden in Argyll and Bute covering about 120 acres on a mountainside. It holds plant collections from the Himalaya, China, Japan, North America, and South America arranged across different elevations and landscape types.

The garden was founded in 1863 when Piers Patrick purchased the estate and began planting its first trees. From that start, the land was gradually transformed into a botanical garden collecting plants from around the world.

The Victorian Fernery displays over 70 fern species arranged in a structured setting that shows how gardeners of the 1800s thought about plant collections. Walking through this section, you can see how people of that era valued these delicate plants as prized specimens.

The garden sits on a mountainside with trails of varying difficulty and length for different visitors. Visiting after dry weather is ideal, as the paths can become slippery from moisture in this region.

Giant Redwood trees planted at the entrance in the garden's early decades are now among the oldest and largest specimens of their kind in Scotland. These towering trees stand as witnesses to the botanical vision of those early founders.

Location: Argyll and Bute

Location: Dunoon and Kilmun

Website: https://rbge.org.uk/visit/benmore-botanic-garden

GPS coordinates: 56.02639,-4.98111

Latest update: December 8, 2025 20:02