A Fife estate, which opened its doors to the public for the first time five years ago, has become a template for the boost that Scotland’s gardens can deliver to the country’s tourism economy.

In 2021 Teasses Estate, near St Andrews, decided to turn its 60 acres of ornamental woods, huge herbaceous borders and restored Victorian kitchen garden into a tourist destination and now it attracts tens of thousands of visitors a year including many from the USA.

Craig Cameron, Teasses Estate factor, told an audience at the Garden Tourism Conference organised by Discover Scottish Gardens (DSG) that the £200 million that gardens currently deliver annually in tourism revenue to Scotland has scope to be greatly increased.

“It’s about having a compelling story and offering something a little bit different, such as workshops, head gardener tours and catered lunches.”

Craig Cameron (left) with Julianne Robertson and Tony Stevenson from Discover Scottish Gardens.(Pic: Julie Howden)

placeholder image — Craig Cameron (left) with Julianne Robertson and Tony Stevenson from Discover Scottish Gardens.(Pic: Julie Howden)

From an initial start with just six, small coaches, Teasses now welcomes almost 90 tour groups every year, as well as thousands of individual visitors, and the skeleton crew has grown to 15 full-time staff, along with seasonal workers, creating a boost for at least 30 families in the local, rural community.

The conference was the second that gardens network, DSG, has delivered in order to support its members to attract visitors. It was held at Scone Palace, which this year is marking its 60th anniversary of opening to the public by introducing a new ticketing system whereby visitors who pay once can come back for free as many times as they like throughout the year.

The map is printed annually and it continues to buck the digital trend, this year increasing its print run by 25% to 1250,000 copies.