Described in 1925 as the most important Japanese garden in the West, the Japanese Garden at Cowden in Clackmannanshire — the ancestral home of Sara Stewart — fell into decline and was eventually closed in 1955. Now, it has been magnificently restored, as Caroline Donald explains. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
Central to the creation of the Japanese Garden at Cowden is a series of adventurous women. The tale begins with Isabella ‘Ella’ Christie (1861–1949):…
