Wood you believe it… The Scottish Tree Festival is back

Some of Scotland’s most beautiful and unusual trees will be celebrated once again this year as the Scottish Tree Festival returns for its second year.

Organised by national garden tourism group Discover Scottish Gardens and supported by VisitScotland, the Festival aims to inspire local people and tourists to take a trip outdoors and enjoy Scotland’s spectacular array of diverse woodlands and gardens. 

Over 70 nationwide events will be held from 28th September to 1st December, from Attadale Gardens in the Highlands to Kailzie Gardens in the Scottish Borders, showcasing Scotland’s heritage, exotic and champion trees.  

The Festival returns after a highly successful first year with continued participation from the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), Historic Environment Scotland and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. 

Eight new NTS sites have joined the Festival including, Balmerino Abbey, Branklyn Garden, Drum Castle, Fyvie Castle, Glencoe Woodland, Inverewe Garden, Kellie Castle and Hill of Tarvit offering a range of guided garden and woodland walks, tree trails and tree workshops. 

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh also returns to the Festival with a host of garden guided walks and an exhibition celebrating the wonders of wood, along with its Regional Gardens Dawyck, known for spectacular autumn colour, Benmore and Logan Botanic Garden.  

For those looking for something a bit different, the University of Edinburgh’s Gaelic officer is offering an afternoon of storytelling under the trees in Holyrood Park as part of Historic Environment Scotland’s involvement, or visitors can also explore the historic apple orchard at Aberdour Castle and Gardens and learn about the significance of apples in Gaelic culture. 

A number of new partners have joined the Festival’s second year with a range of events and activities. The Enchanted Forest, a pioneering sound and light show exploring the autumn woodland of Faskally Wood near Pitlochry; Floors Castle & Gardens in Kelso with its 200 year old oak trees and Scotland’s very first monkey puzzle tree; and the most northerly of Scotland’s great houses, Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland, where visitors can enjoy picking apples in the garden and drinking the fresh juice. 

In addition, a host of other individual garden owners, nurseries and tree-related activity organisers are also involved providing visitors with multiple opportunities to engage with Scotland’s greenspaces and celebrate the longest living species on earth.  

Discover Scottish Gardens is sponsored by Galbraith, Lycetts Insurance Brokers, Alitex, Gardening Scotland, Turcan Connell and Historic Houses Scotland. The Tree Festival has also teamed up with Scotrail to offer its customers the chance of winning tickets to an associate member of the festival. 

For more information and event listings for this year’s tree festival, please visit https://www.visitscotland.com/blog/events/scottish-tree-festival/