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The walled gardens of Castle Fraser lie to the north of the castle. They were probably built circa 1795. The walls are of brick with header courses, every 4th with granite dressings. It is rectangular in plan, and contains 17th-century sundial with complex lectern dial in freestone. The gardeners cottage to the east is still in use. In order to inform a garden restoration project in which much of the original path system of the walled garden was to be restored, a small trench was excavated in October 2003 by NTS across the line of a former path. This was once the eastern arm of a centrally planned cross pattern, now grassed over, which first appears on a plan of the garden in 1816 and most likely dates to its inception in about 1794-9. The central cross appears to have been removed in the 1960s or early 1970s. The excavation revealed a series of path surface layers immediately below the turf and topsoil, forming a deposit ranging from 8-18cm in depth and about 130-140cm across. Each surface was composed of the same loamy sand, very similar to the natural subsoil and most probably from a source on the Castle Fraser Estate. The original path surface lay directly over the pre-garden ploughsoil, with no base layer of coarser material or metalling. A watching brief was carried out in April 2011 by MAS during works to establish a soak-away to the east of the walled garden. No archaeological features or finds were evident.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)