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The Long Terrace Walk
The Long Terrace Walk affords a birds-eye view over the stone ballustrade to the lower gardens and surrounding woodland. This splendid Walk is about 183 m (200 yds) long and has changed little since the early 1700s.
The massive stone retaining wall below is an outstanding feature of Drumlanrig due to its length and height. The use of the wall for growing tender climbers has been well documented. Old and tender specimens continue to feature along the wall, particularly one of the oldest fan trained Ginkgo or Maidenhair (Ginkgo biloba) trees in the British Isles introduced from Japan in 1754. This species is the sole living representative of a large group of plants which occurred throughout the world in prehistoric times.
Some of the other old survivors on the wall include Garrya elliptica, named after Mr Garry of the Hudson Bay Company who helped David Douglas in his exploration in North West America, Carpenteria californica, Magnolia grandiflora, and Ribes odoratum 'Buffalo Currant'.
Planted along the border you will find a large selection of hardy and half hardy perennial garden plants, including Lobelia tupa which is unlike the conventional bedding lobelia. This is a magnificent plant with long, downy leaves, erect stems with flowers made up of claw-like segments of varying pink, rose and red shades. Kirengeshoma palmata is growing in the damp shade at the end of the border below the Ginkgo. This exceptionally graceful plant catches your eye with its cool yellow, shuttlecock flowers.
Strobilanthes atropurpureus is Himalayan in origin and is a bushy plant resembling a Salvia. The violet blue flowers which cover the plant lose their beauty by midday, when they fade and turn to purple.
An ongoing re-introduction of wall roses, shrubs and perennials that were once grown at Drumlanrig, is currently underway in this part of the gardens.
The Long Terrace Walk leads down on to the Low Ground, the Low Sand Garden and the Shawl, flanked by the Arboretum and the Wilderness at its edges.