About Smeaton Nursery Gardens

Discover our rich history on the Smeaton Estate.

A Rich History

Smeaton Nursery Gardens is situated in the middle of the Smeaton Hepburn estate in the walled garden of the old mansion house built in 1793.

Unfortunately the mansion house had to be demolished in the early 1950s and the walled gardens and a few stone steps are all that remain. The history of the gardens started with Sir George Buchan Hepburn who built the Mansion house and the walled gardens. The following generations carried out the majority of the ornamental planting and also created the lake and started the estate Arboretum.

This tradition was carried on by The Gray family, who bought the estate in 1934, with George and Anne Gray playing a major part in the continuous planting and maintenance of the gardens and the estate as a whole. The walled gardens were first opened as a nursery in the 1960s with the current team taking over in 2003.

Smeaton Estate

Smeaton Estate, a working farm of 450 acres, has been owned and run by the Gray family since 1934. Set in the beautiful East Lothian countryside the family have carefully maintained and preserved the natural beauty of the estate as well as working the land.

With beautiful parkland, woodland and lake, Smeaton Estate is home to a variety of wildlife (including both fallow and roe deer) and the not so wild (our Highland cows for example) and has a traditional nursery garden and award winning tea room serving delicious homemade cakes, as well as holiday cottages for longer stays.

Just 45 minutes from the centre of Edinburgh in the peaceful village of East Linton the estate is also the perfect base from which to explore the fabulous East Lothian sandy beaches, the Lammermuir hills or the numerous golf courses East Lothian has to offer.