Waterside Garden

WELCOME

Waterside is located in the beautiful Moffat Dale about two and a half miles (4 kilometres) from Moffat town. It is surrounded by hills and forest and the garden itself lies between the Selkirk Road (A708) and the Moffat Water which forms its east boundary. The grounds run to some 10 acres (around 4 hectares) and consist of 3 acres (1.2 hectares) of cultivated garden and the rest being made up of old and newly planted woodland, meadows, river banks and ponds.

My late husband, Robert Bradford, and I bought this property in the autumn of 2005, having already developed a garden at Holestone Lodge (now Hollytree Lodge) in Pool o' Muckhart, Clackmannanshire over the previous 18 years. We were feeling that 1 acre (.4 hectare) was limiting our style and wanted to start afresh. Waterside gave us the perfect carte blanche that we needed, as it posed new and exciting challenges and opportunities. Unfortunately, Robert died of a brain tumour in 2009 and that caused a long delay in getting the garden up to a standard to merit visitors.

There are many levels with steep(ish) slopes falling from the house towards the river and gently undulating paths, presenting particular challenges in places, as do the different soil types, ranging from thin acid soil over scree to heavy clay. One thing that we didn't anticipate was the variety of trees and wildflowers that came for free. The current garden layout aims to maximise the impact of these as well as utilising the stunning local scenery to provide a (hopefully) coherent background for the cultivated garden.

Featured in Borders TV's Border Life programme spring 2021, Scotland on Sunday 16th January 2022 snd Scottish Field in August 2022..

Main Garden Map

Opening

The garden is open to individuals and groups by arrangement from 1st May 2023 to 30th September 2023 between 10.30 am and 5.00 pm daily.
Entrance donation £5.00 per person. Children under 16 are free. 50% of income from the garden will go to SGS charities, and 50% to a local charity (Moffat Water Hall).

No pets except assistance dogs.
The Main Garden is mostly accessible to wheelchair users, but the woodland is only partially accessible (rough paths).

Please contact:
E-mail: rtdcann@gmail.com
Phone: +44 (0)7714 230235
Address: Waterside, Moffat, Dumfriesshire, DG10 9LF, UK

Ronnie Cann

The garden is dedicated to the memory of Robert Berenger Pickering Bradford 1952-2009