The Pinetums

The 19th Century was the era of the great Victorian plant hunters: intrepid explorers probed the farthest corners of the world, sending back seeds of plants never before seen in Britain.

Conifers were particularly popular and were a special preference of the 3rd Marquess of Bute, who planted the original Victorian Pinetum at Mount Stuart. Although we are now used to a huge range of conifers in this country, it should be remembered that there are only three native British conifers, so the trees planted here - for example the Douglas Fir - were rare curiosities just a century ago.

The new Pinetum was laid out within the past decade under the guiding hand of the 6th Marquess, who made a great contribution to the conservation of rare species. Mount Stuart joined forces with The Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh to set up the first 'network' garden within the International Conifer Conservation programme. This initiative was established to set up a 'seed bank' for endangered temperate conifers, endangered by logging and de-forestation.

Mount Stuart, Britain’s most astounding Victorian gothic house