You’ll get lots of impressive sights and views from the gardens: to name a few, you can see botanical innovation at its finest with the David Douglas Pinetum, then you can retreat  for a few moments of total escape and get lost in space in the star shaped maze. If you bring young children along for the day, there’s a vast outdoor play area, exciting enough to trigger nostalgia and have you up and running around alongside your kids, along with the peacocks.

If simply taking a turn about the grounds isn’t enough for you, there is also the option of renting one of the five guest rooms in the Bailvard wing of the house. Each room is furnished with a king-sized, canopied bed and gilded skirting, to help you into believing that you’re royalty for the weekend. Inside the palace the history is just as impressive, with  the porcelain and ceramics collected by a succession of  Earls of Mansfield plus needlework bed hangings stitched by Mary Queen of Scots, herself, and the desk where Mary Antoinette once wrote letters home when she visited.

During the winter months, you can visit the gardens for free. There is also a gift shop and food shop that you can pop into, to enjoy a light spot of lunch or a scone.

The grounds are open from 1st April to 31st October. Opening hours during these months are 10.00am until 4.00pm. Then from May until September the grounds are open from 9:30am until 5.45pm.

Scone Palace

 Perth PH2 6BD