Benmore Botanic Garden

Benmore is a 120-acre botanic garden on the Cowal Peninsula, with giant redwoods at its entrance and paths climbing through wooded slopes above the River Eachaig. It combines a formal garden and pond with towering conifers, rhododendrons, a Victorian Fernery and plant collections from several continents. The scale is the surprise: this is a landscape to walk through, with whole hillside sections to explore, rather than a compact set of flower beds.

Give it a few hours, and choose your route around how much climbing you want. The lower paths include some of the best-known features, so a visit doesn't depend on reaching the top. If you enjoy trees, unusual plants and a walk with plenty of reasons to pause, it deserves that time. Spring and early summer bring the rhododendron displays, while the huge trunks and varied foliage give the garden interest beyond the flowers.

After the visitor centre and footbridge, the Redwood Avenue makes a striking introduction. The giant sequoias were planted in 1863 and now rise roughly 50 m above the path. Stand back and look along the avenue before walking into it; the repeated trunks make their size easier to take in than a close look at a single tree.

For a photograph, include the path running between the trunks rather than pointing straight up into the crowns. It gives the avenue depth and makes the trees' scale much clearer. Farther into the lower garden, the pond and formal planting provide a change from the tall woodland.

The garden developed from a nineteenth-century estate, with extensive planting by successive owners. It opened as a botanic garden in 1929, bringing a scientific plant collection into a landscape already shaped by decades of tree planting. The mild, wet setting helps support plants from places as far apart as the Himalayas, East Asia and the Americas.

The restored Victorian Fernery is one of the most distinctive stops. Built in the 1870s and reopened after restoration in 2009, it places ferns against a natural rock face inside a historic glass-roofed structure. It has a steep approach, 44 external steps and another 24 inside, so it isn't part of the Easy Access Route.

Higher paths lead toward the Bhutanese and Chilean pavilions and the Wright Smith Memorial Viewpoint. The latter is at the garden's highest point, 137 m above sea level, with views toward Holy Loch and the surrounding mountains. These routes have loose surfaces and gradients as steep as 1:3. Treat them as hillside walking, rather than assuming every garden path is a gentle stroll.

The lower Easy Access Route is mostly wide and level, with benches, though roots and occasional gradients mean some wheelchair users may need assistance. The visitor centre has level access, and accessible toilets are available at the entrance and by the courtyard.

Redwood Coffee serves coffee, snacks and home baking, making it a useful place to pause before or after the walk. There's also a shop. Dogs can accompany you on a short lead in the garden, but aren't allowed inside the Fernery.

Find the entrance off the A815, about seven miles north of Dunoon. Car and coach parking and bicycle racks are provided. Check the visiting season before travelling, particularly outside spring through autumn, and wear shoes suited to gravel paths and a wet hillside.