Description

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

The fernery at Benmore is a rare survival of this type of building. Few ferneries survive in any condition in Scotland. This example, although it is ruinous, retains its walls and internal features. It is a rare structure and important as an integral part of the gardens at Benmore.

The fernery, which is built into a steep-sided cleft using rubble, is rectangular in plan with semicircular gables. The entrance is to the S and supports a stone arch, with steps to either side. The interior consists of high walls with occasional built-in ledges for ferns. Only a few iron hoops for a barrel roof survive. It appears from the shape of the gables that there was a lantern running the length of the roof. The interior of the fernery also contains a quartz grotto with steps to either side. To the NW, on the exterior is a small lean-to structure ' probably the original heating plant for the fernery.

Statement of Interest

Ferneries became popular in British gardens from the 1850s, the result of a new interest in more exotic plants and the fashion for fern collecting and continued to be built until after 1900.

In 1870 the Benmore estate was acquired by James Duncan, a Greenock Sugar Refiner. Duncan carried out many improvements to the estate, including extending the house and building a number of worker's cottages. Duncan was also largely responsible for the garden layout which survives today. The fernery belongs to this period.

Benmore Estate is perhaps best known as the setting for Benmore Botanic Garden, run by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The garden and designed landscape is notable for the collection of coniferous trees, planted by successive owners since c1820.

Part of B-Group including Benmore House, the Steading, North Lodge and Gates, the Golden Gates, 'Puck's Hut', Walled garden and the cottages to the E of it (see separate listings).

Within Benmore-Younger Botanic Garden Designed Landscape.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17776086

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2