HISTORY

The Seton Garden – Ran by the Bathgate family for over 130 years

seton palace grounds

The Seton Garden was originally part of the Seton Palace grounds. The palace was a popular retreat for Mary Queen of Scots and indeed spent her honeymoon with Lord Darnley there. It fell into disrepair after the Jacobite rebellion in 1715 and was demolished in 1790. The current Robert Adam designed castle was built in 1791. It is likely that the garden was separated then and the land was subsequently used for market gardening.

Bobs great grandfather started the journey in 1884 when The Seton Garden was a very successful and prosperous market garden. In the early days they grew soft fruits and vegetables before moving onto concentrate on vegetables for the Edinburgh markets in the early 1960s. At one point there was over 120 Acres of vegetables grown at any one time which included the field that is now utilised as our car park.

walled gardens

As time went on, increases in running costs and the popularity of supermarkets meant that smaller market gardens such as Seton and many others found it difficult to compete and make the margins required so things had to move on. With such a large area within the walled gardens, it was for ease of maintenance that the gardens were levelled and grass seed sewn.

our package/guide

It was during a family friends gathering in The Seton Garden that questions were asked about the possibility of hiring the space. This small seed was planted and here we are, numerous weddings later and with the addition of improved access, mains electricity and static comfortable toilet blocks which includes disabled access and baby changing facilities, we really have a purpose made venue in place with a solid structure for you to make the day as unique as you are.