Introduction
The living plant collection at Linn is of outstanding horticultural importance for its size and diversity. It contains species from around the world, many of which are endangered in the wild or seldom seen in cultivation. Eight champion trees have been recorded.
http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/hes/web/f?p=PORTAL:DESIGNATIONS:0
Type of Site
A botanic garden noted for its compact, precipitous, lush landscape, benefitting from the tempering influence of the Gulf Stream, and quite probably exhibiting the greatest diversity of plants per area in Scotland.
Location and Setting
Linn Botanic Garden is situated by Cove village, near the southern tip of the Rosneath peninsula. The site topography, which is varied and complex, includes a raised beach terrace, steep rock faces and a deep gorge carved by the Meikle Burn, which flows into Loch Long from the flanks of Clach MacKenny to the west. The dramatic landform combines with the tempering influence of the Gulf Stream to provide opportunities for growing rare and tender plants and for garden making on an intimate scale. The word Linn in Scots refers to a waterfall or torrent of rushing water in a river or stream, a pool of water at the foot of a waterfall or a steep ravine or precipice; all of which describe natural features found within the designed landscape.
The gardens are centred on a category B-listed, gabled villa called The Linn, which occupies the most elevated part of the site and which commands some views to the west across the mountains of the Cowal Peninsula and south-west, over the Firth of Clyde and the island of Bute to the mountains of Arran. These views are now partially or fully obscured by mature trees and woodland. Although the gardens encompass a total area of only 1.25 ha. (3 acres), the steep rocky terrain and a serpentine path network create an illusion of much greater extent than in reality, and combine to afford glimpsed surprise views from many parts of the garden.
Landscape Components
Architectural Features
The Linn, designed in 1858 by William Motherwell, stands at the centre of the botanic garden. It is a two-storey, rambling-plan, gabled Italianate villa of whinstone and sandstone rubble with harl-pointing. Its adjacent garden terrace was built by Dr Jim Taggart in 1974 using stone from the retaining wall of a croquet lawn. Spanning the Meikle Burn, the stone, single-arched Destiny Bridge was also constructed by Jim Taggart in 2000 as a millennium project and as a replacement for an earlier wooden bridge. It features a carved stone recording the algebraic formula that underpins the bridge's elliptical form. Other architectural features within the gardens include Linn Cottage, built in 1925, glasshouses above the house and at the plant sales area, and steps up the cliff constructed from cast iron colliery rail track. A small octagonal kiosk with red window frames located at the entrance of the nursery area was designed and built by James and Jim Taggart in 1996. A former summerhouse, also with red window frames, provides shelter at the edge of the bottom pond. Moved several times in its history, this summerhouse was once mounted on a revolving platform.
Drives and Approaches
The entrance drive follows the route of an older farm track.
Paths and Walks
The one kilometre walk via serpentine paths is a fundamental part of the garden experience at Linn. Giving access to all parts of the gardens, the paths lead through varied topography, affording scenes of contrasting scales. Occasional views through the tree cover across Loch Long reveal the wider landscape setting, while elsewhere, the steep rocky slopes of the Meikle Burn gully and the surrounding lush vegetation promote more enclosing, intimate-scale gardenscapes, redolent of scenes from plant hunting expeditions.
Water Features
The naturalistic, animated presence of Meikle Burn contrasts with quieter pools at Linn constructed by Dr Jim Taggart in the 1970s and 1980s. The long, rectangular lily pond at the top of the gardens was built in 1972 on the site of a hard tennis court, and its design is typical of this era. Meanwhile, a small pond within the garden terrace of Linn Villa contains insectivorous plants growing in sphagnum. To the south, a sequence of three circular ponds are set within the Bottom Garden. The largest is fifty feet in diameter and was completed in 1988 to help solve the waterlogging that occurred in this part of the gardens. A fountain was added in 1994, while adjacent planting include Primulas, Astelia, Iris and Rodgersias.
The Gardens
The path leads through a sequence of discrete garden areas. The Walk up the Glen features steep slopes densely planted with rhododendrons, exotic climbers, and Chinese Epimedium species. A schefflera fengii growing on the upper Glenside is one of two at The Linn collected from the wild in China by James Taggart, and has recently been confirmed as the UK and Ireland champion (Johnson 2012). Above the glen, the Bamboo Garden is located in the extreme north-east corner of the gardens. Initiated in 1990, it now contains some 40 different kinds of bamboo. From here, and along the top northern edge of the site past the Long Pond, the Back Border occupies the site of the former cultivated garden. The rose fence and double borders with woody Paeonia species were planted in 1971 to replace the vegetable plots. In the north-west corner of the site, the Old Top Garden is planted as an exotic wood, notable for its good autumnal foliage. Special trees and shrubs growing here include the Australian snowdrop tree (Atherosperma moschatum), Leatherwood (Eucryphia lucida), Enkianthus chinensus, and from Japan, a Sawtooth Pseudocamellia (Stewartia serrata) and a katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum magnificum), which is also distinguished as a UK and Ireland champion (Johnson 2012). By the house, the garden terrace with small shrubs and alpines sits above an unusual New Zealand Alpine Lawn or heath, established by James Taggart in 2004. The path proceeds by the Spiky Bed of cabbage palms, yuccas and grasses towards The Bank where aspect and good air flow encourages frost tender shrubs to flourish. A Lily Bed to the south also features interesting woodland herbs and affords views upslope to unusual Primula and Meconopsis species. Following a circuit of the Bottom Garden and Pond (see 'Water Features'), steps made from old colliery rail track lead up the cliff. Below, to the south is a rockery, featuring dwarf leatherwood (Eucryphia milliganii) and different kinds of Eucalyptus, while to the north-west, a triangular area known as The Moor contains diverse small, heathy shrubs.
- Visitor Access, Directions & Contacts
Telephone
0131 668 8600
- History
The following is from the Historic Environment Scotland Gardens and Designed Landscapes Inventory. For the most up-to-date Inventory entry, please visit the Historic Environment Scotland website:
http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/hes/web/f?p=PORTAL:DESIGNATIONS:0
Reason for Inclusion
The living plant collection at Linn is of outstanding horticultural importance for its size and diversity. It contains species from around the world, many of which are endangered in the wild or seldom seen in cultivation. Eight champion trees have been recorded.
Main Phases of Landscape Development
1971-ongoing
Site History
Linn Botanic Garden was established via the combined efforts of two generations of the Taggart family. In 1971, Dr Jim Taggart, a botanist and one-time lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin, purchased the property and set about transforming the steep and rocky garden grounds that surround the hill-top Victorian villa. In 1997, his son, James Taggart, assumed responsibility, and the gardens continue to grow and evolve under his stewardship.
Prior to this intense period of development, the gardens had retained a conventional, unprepossessing character, and were mainly confined to the more level grounds around the house. Linn villa itself had been built in 1860, perched on a cliff above the other loch-shore villas. Constructed to designs by William Motherwell, it was in keeping with the emerging architectural character of Cove, where wealthy businessmen from Glasgow were erecting grand summer residences in plots leased from the Duke of Argyll. A lawn extended downslope from the west elevation of the house, while to the south-west, the cliff-edge was just metres from the house. By the end of the 19th century, the acquisition of more land to the north-west provided opportunity for a fruit and vegetable garden with associated rectilinear path structure aligned south-east to north-west. A hard tennis court and a croquet green were established on the same alignment in the early years of the 20th century. The house was built for James and Agnes Martin, and the Martin family remained at The Linn up until the mid-20th century. Two further changes in ownership had little impact on the structure of the garden grounds, and the path arrangement described above persisted until the 1970s.
In 1971, Jim Taggart commenced his garden project at The Linn. A botanist by profession, Dr Taggart also came from a horticultural family. His mother had run a branch of the Scottish Rock Garden Club for Cove and Kilcreggan, and had enjoyed participating in various seed exchanges. Now, with a new garden setting, Dr Taggart was able to find a home for a long-established and expanding family plant collection, including some from a now lost garden at Trinity College, Dublin, and could begin plans for his own collection of choice and unusual taxa. His first acts of garden making were to let in light and make room around the house by removing surplus trees and hedges, and to align the former path structure with the long west façade of the house. This involved constructing a terrace around the south and west of the building.
The dramatic and precipitous landscape setting, together with the temperate Gulf Stream conditions, proved ideal for the establishment of different and successful garden areas. During the 1970s and 1980s, Dr Taggart removed decades worth of accumulated debris from the Meikle Burn gully, extended plantings of tender shrubs and trees down the steep banks, and created water features in the lowest part of the gardens to help solve flooding and drainage problems. Meanwhile, the botanical collection grew apace, with species sourced from China, Peru and the Himalayas. Opened to the public from 1974, Linn began to attract attention in the press and the horticultural world as a garden of special interest, and a valuable visitor attraction.
In 1997, Jim Taggart transferred responsibility for the gardens to his son, James Taggart. Also a botanist, James grew up with the garden projects of his father, and had begun collecting plants from the age of five. In 1995, he joined an expedition to Yunnan Province in China, returning to The Linn with the seeds of some 450 plants. With his new role established at Linn, there came recognition that the gardens were by now a significant and maturing repository of plants and trees, many of which were endangered in the wild, and in 1999, the gardens were renamed as a botanic garden. This entailed a greater focus on plant documentation, labelling, and educational access, and one of James' key tasks since then has been to align the older paper records with modern systems of cataloguing. Meanwhile, other projects have included the creation of a New Zealand heath (2005), the development of a significant fern collection, and the ongoing acquisition of rare or special plants from around the world that are rarely seen in cultivation, including a tree fern (Blechnum palmiforme) from the remote South Atlantic Gough Island (Taggart 2009).
At the time of writing (2012), there are in excess of 8000 taxa at Linn, including over 200 rhododendrons, (plus numerous named and unnamed hybrids). This almost certainly represents the greatest diversity of species per area in Scotland. Furthermore, despite the relative youth of the gardens, a tree survey in 2012 identified no less than eight UK and Ireland champion trees together with further Scottish and county champions (Johnson 2012).
- Features & Designations
Designations
Historic Environment Scotland An Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland
Features
- Villa (featured building)
- Description: Architectural FeaturesThe Linn, designed in 1858 by William Motherwell, stands at the centre of the botanic garden. It is a two-storey, rambling-plan, gabled Italianate villa of whinstone and sandstone rubble with harl-pointing.
- Earliest Date:
- Latest Date:
- Key Information
Type
Collection
Purpose
Educational
Principal Building
Horticultural
Survival
Extant
Hectares
1.25
Open to the public
Yes
Electoral Ward
Garelochhead and Cove
- References
Contributors
Historic Scotland