Scone Palace will be joining over 50 other gardens across Scotland when it takes part in the Scottish Snowdrop Festival for the first time this month.

The Palace Grounds will be opening for the Festival on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th February as well as the following weekend, Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th February, when the Palace will also be open for the Galloway Antiques Fair, from 11am to 4pm.

Whilst there are no formal gardens at Scone, the natural surroundings of the woodland and wild gardens with their borders, flowering shrubs and trees create a delightfully peaceful setting for a winter’s stroll in crisp sunshine. Banks of snowdrops can be found almost everywhere across the one hundred acres of beautiful gardens at this time of year, with the trees at Scone forming a particularly spectacular backdrop to these delicate little flowers, from the fine old cedars of Lebanon around the chapel to the towering, exotic conifers of the Pinetum.

Head Gardener Peter Timoney said, ‘People think that as snowdrops grow so well in Britain they must be native to these shores, but in fact that’s not the case. It’s a little known fact that they are actually native to The Crimea and have only fairly recently become naturalised in the UK. It was common for the landed gentry to send their second or third sons off to fight in The Crimean War, and many of these soldiers brought back snowdrops as souvenirs. That’s one reason why you tend to find so many stunning displays of snowdrops in the grounds of historic houses’.

Visitors to the festival will also be able to enjoy afternoon tea in the coffee shop and browse around the Palace’s Food and Gift shops. For further information please visit www.visitscotland.com/snowdrops.