Meet the member:
Backhouse Rossie Estate

We believe Rossie was first mentioned by the Romans, but this may have been a reference to the former Loch Rossie. The estate itself is recorded in the written record during the reign of King David 1^st who ruled Scotland from 1124-1153. But fast forward to the day we bought Rossie Estate 21 years ago, albeit in a fairly run down condition, when we began a program of restoration, starting with the farmland, dykes, fences and tracks, then the walled garden and cottages and are now completing the renovation of Rossie House. We were asked about 10 years ago to open the garden for Scotland’s Yellow Book Scheme and the business really started from there. Eight years ago, we opened the gardens to visitors from Apr-Sept with the Backhouse Kitchen offering breakfast, lunch and teas. The Flower Barn now offers a space for weddings, over 100 have taken place or are booked. We also host corporate events such as offsites, garden groups and funeral teas – never a dull moment since we opened the doors for the first time in nearly a thousand years!

We quickly realised that we needed a unique name as Rossie means “head of the loch” – and there are a few Rossies around – especially in Perthshire – having received unexpected coach tours, we decided on Backhouse Rossie Estate. Because our Backhouse forbears were part of a long line of experts in various horticultural specialisms. The Backhouse Nursery built the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Rock Garden and their Herbarium holds over 250 Backhouse collected specimens, RBG Kew rock garden is also in part Backhouse built, their archives and herbarium hold letters, lists of plant introductions and specimens. So, when the family company recently came up for sale, we purchased it and now proudly display the original ‘Backhouse Nursery’ name, reinstated in Scotland, our ancestors first choice for its location. Our nod to these historic rock gardens is an alpine scree garden located at the entrance here, which can be enjoyed by visitors to The Kitchen. The walled garden design also looks to the past but also the future, with the central pathway from east to west designed in the pattern of a double helix leading to some of the first genetically improved Backhouse plant material growing in the garden – offering a lens into the importance of this unique legacy for people to enjoy today.

Because our fields surround the gardens we also acknowledge the importance of William O Backhouse’s genetic improvements in the creation of a rust disease resistant wheat which helped stabilise the economy in Argentina in the mid 1900’s, this legacy led us to the Backhouse and Fife based Carr’s Flour connection, we talked, it was interesting and exciting, but our Kitchen flour requirements are small by comparison to the operation in Kirkcaldy, so we are happy to continue the connection by purchasing from one of their smaller outlets.

As we are all aware of climate and habitat change, we have implemented a number of projects to help restore our ecosystem, combat climate change and create a more sustainable environment. Including re-wilding the Alder Carr, improving soil health and increasing biodiversity. Planting native tree combinations, creating wildlife corridors connecting established mature woodlands. A biomass boiler was installed to heat the cottages.

In the gardens we choose supportive flowering plant and shrub combinations to create night and day pollinator borders and even have a rainwater collection system from the steading rooves to help water the garden.

Our stats show the red squirrel population is flourishing, we continue to see rarer bird life, a pair of fly catchers (RSPB Red List species) are nesting close by, the count in our numbered bird boxes is increasing, as is our diversity of moths and butterflies with over 400 different Lepidoptera ID’s recorded within the estate by Fife’s expert. These efforts have contributed to our recognition with a Green Tourism Award.

Every day is different – We run events and weddings which, as part of our core belief, ‘don’t cost the earth’. Friday is wedding set up day, Saturday is the wedding day and Sunday is clear up and a busy day for The Kitchen with breakfasts/brunch being in strong demand. The cottages, wedding show rounds/emails/follow up meetings, visiting groups/ new business leads, The Kitchen and garden work, dominate the rest of the week, with larger machinery being used on a Tuesday – the one day we close through our season (April-Sept). We also find time for ourselves as a business to consider and look at longer term planning, we enjoy reaching out to other organisations and attending seminars and functions, as well as delivering talks and commenting/contributing when requested for other organisations horticultural/or tourism projects.

We received funding to create a range of flower petal jellies, to take to market, we worked with chefs at Elmwood College, to perfect the process, several flowers and hedgerow weeds were trialled, until a core of 6 flavours were agreed, they proved popular at The Kitchen and a large London Store, we still need to improve the shelf life quality.

Here at Backhouse Rossie Estate we have a very productive Walled Garden – producing over a tonne of Malus (apple) and Pyrus communis (pear)– most of which are sent to Cairn O’Mohr to produce our own chemical free juice. The Malus, Pyrus, Cydonia oblonga (Quince) Prunus domestica (Plum) and soft fruit are all made into jams, jellies and chutneys for use in the Kitchen or for sale. Our speciality product is our Mary Queen of Scots (to whom we are related historically through marriage) Sambucus nigra (Elderberry) Balsamic Vinegar, the berries of which are harvested from the elderflower trees all over the estate. We lean into the history and holistic aspect of the estate, using plants introduced centuries ago, i.e., Aegopodium podagraria (Ground-elder) with tender young leaves tasty in springtime salads, Sweet honey and Taraxacum officinale (dandelion) petal bread is delightful with soup during the season. Sium sisarum (Skirret ), a popular Tudor and Stuart vegetable, is used in Skirret Pye or our veggie soups. Rosa spinosissima (The Mary Queen of Scots rose) sugared petals for decorating baking. And surprisingly, the centre of the tops of Dicksonia antarctica (soft tree fern) are edible and taste like Swedish turnip, James Backhouse on a plant hunting trip to Tasmania writes about this – so we thought we would try it out too, but it isn’t commercially viable – more of an acquired taste!

You will see on our menu our bespoke leaf teas are all named after the prominent Backhouse family members famous introductions i.e. the first deep purple Backhouse Lavandula. Our cakes, salads and chutneys often bear witness to their historic plants. Our plant sales also reflect the original Backhouse Nursery catalogue lists. Some of which you can see in the garden in season.

Not only do we use our own produce, jams & chutneys but we welcome Byam Trotter of Trotter’s Independent Condiments every spring to harvest our Allium Ursinum (Wild Garlic) so he can make his delicious Garlic Pesto, which we are delighted to use in our Taste of May, Wild Garlic Pesto Toasties.

Our interest in Brassica oleracea var. italica (broccoli) was developed after learning Charles Darwin (who knew the Backhouse’s) in his famous Drip and Bloom tests, used and recorded in his own handwriting results from testing Backhouse Broccoli, hence we are in contact with the home of Charles Darwin (Down House), to re-enact the delivery of Backhouse broccoli for a modern day offering of a historic recipe for broccoli soup from that era, for their visitors. Our renewed interest means we often use locally grown broccoli in soup and local broccoli crisps in our Cottage hampers. Ladybank Butchers supply our Steak Burgers. Myrtle Coffee supplies our organic fairtrade 100% Arabica bean Barista coffee, which is delicious.

We are an accredited RHS Partner Garden, so we have an all year round planting scheme – but when we open in April, there are literally thousands of historic daffodils, many bred by three generations of the Backhouse family– and Caroline as well. These were awarded National Collection status by Plant Heritage and Scientific status has now been added to this.

Visitors to the spring garden can have the unique opportunity to walk through daffodil breeding history from the wild Wordsworth’s style flowers fluttering in the breeze to some of the first early 1620 cultivars to modern day wonders. It is development of these cultivars by the Backhouse family in Britain which, in great part, enabled our country to become a world leader in growing daffodils, indeed we still provide 90% of the world’s daffodil flower needs. The daffodil industry infrastructure is still intact in the UK making it interesting to the pharmaceutical companies for development of the chemical compounds found in Narcissus into drugs to treat early – moderate vascular Alzheimer’s disease. Trials to treat patients with respiratory impaction post covid are looking promising.

Our Narcissus trial beds here attempt to show the tiniest differences between a true variety, and a discarded seedling which did not reach the breeders high standards.

The ‘Downing College’ Cambridge University’s inspirational Narcissus cultivar is on display, along with information from Professor Walker who created it alongside the Master Growers and leaders in their field Ron and Adrian Scamp.

Holding Scotland’s Daffodil Festival in early April allows us to put on displays, not only of our Narcissus but also flowers from Grampian Growers, Scotland’s biggest daffodil growers and suppliers who have kindly supported the festival from the beginning, we also display new gold medal winning Narcissus varieties which are available to buy from Ron and Adrian Scamp, who we are also grateful for their support. The food market stalls are very popular with visitors, (The Sunshine Kitchen, Nakey Bakey, Monica Robertsons Cups & Cakes, Val’s Scottish Tablet). Everyone also loves the Vintage stalls with retro kitchenware, moulds, scales and mixing bowls and even a coconut shy and hook-a-duck at the vintage fete for charity.

Being a Green Tourist awarded site as part of our core belief; our tourism offering does not cost the earth. We offer an eco, green and environmentally friendly way for visitors to enjoy our cottages, gardens and event spaces.

We recycle as much as we can, making compost from The Kitchen waste and use rainwater capture in the rainwater harvesters to support our gardening needs. We grow seasonal vegetables in the veg garden and cut flowers for events/weddings. Fruit and berries from the extensive fruit tree plantings and soft fruit cages are turned into juices and produce for sale which are also available on The Kitchen menu and at our weddings and events. We welcome other local producers to showcase their products with us and recommend many local suppliers to our clients for their events and weddings.

There are permanent (paperless) wooden boards to direct visitors around the garden with lots of take home information or fun facts. In practice the whole business is paperless.

Even our attractions are eco-friendly, for example our children’s Bear Walk is made from our own fallen trees carved into bears, with recycled wood chip paths.

We offer ‘Quiet Space’ and are part of the Quiet Gardens Scheme, our offering is freshly prepared food, quiet spaces, forest walks on managed paths, low impact joys to be found in nature.

Our Kitchen is formed from a re-purposed existing stable building, with the old Victorian glass house pipes remain and used again by the new biomass boiler which attaches to them. Biomass also heats the cottages from fallen timber from the estate.

We reuse and re-purpose with a twist to create ‘a hidden oasis’ as it is often called. We are located close to several public foot paths and cycle routes for a car free day out.

We are part of the North East Fife Local Tourism Association Z Map, so once people are in the area they can visit, stay and enjoy various attractions within a short distance with different appeals to cater for all.

Seasonality is all with us, the gardens offer a wonderful diverse planting, and we offer A Taste Of…’ through the months at The Kitchen. A Taste of April offers new season estate foraged salad leaves. A Taste of May with Wild Garlic Toasties and Rhubarb & Ginger jam, A Taste Of June with Rose Petal scented jelly and the new seasoned pickled vegetables. A Taste of July offers strawberries for Danish pastries and pansies to decorate baking. A Taste of August with beetroot, blackberries, broad beans, broccoli, carrots and onions! A taste of September with potatoes, leeks and apple and pear harvesting. These delights sprang to mind, but of course the garden produces many other delicacies including Asparagus delicious with local bacon, hollandaise sauce or griddled on hot buttered toast at the Kitchen!

We hosted 500 National Health Workers in Fife for a “Thank You Afternoon Tea” and fun games in the garden – it was a huge undertaking for us and a very busy day but with lots of help from our volunteers and staff, it was a great success.

We have an enthusiastic group of local volunteers working with the gardener, enjoying new experiences, working with other people and learning take-home skills.

Andrew is Chair of the NE Fife Local Tourism Association – which is currently match funding the Community Led Newburgh Information Point in a Telephone box which they own. Caroline currently assesses potential gardens wishing to join The Royal Horticultural Society Partner garden scheme in Scotland, which increases green tourism to an area. We offer free membership of our small library which focusses on the cultivation of bulbous plants suitable for horticulturalists/horticultural students and researchers. We offer free garden entry to all members and staff of a national horticultural organisation and 2-for-1 garden entries to anyone part of a large Garden Magazine scheme.

In addition, during our closed season, we give talks to both gardening groups and local communities if requested.

One of the benefits for the community from Scotland’s Daffodil Festival is the vintage garden fete which is run by volunteers in support of local charities.

We run artist residencies and display local and Scottish artists work in The Kitchen seating area.

We link through our scientific collection of plants with people and organisations around the world which unfolds into green tourism. Caroline spoke at the World Daffodil Convention in America, and Scotland is now on several groups bucket list! She also worked in 2025 with the Royal Horticultural Society to raise awareness of disappearing plants, focussing on a UK wide search for 3 varieties of Narcissus. This project was part of the RHS UK mapping project to assess the impact of climate change on communities, documenting emerging/flowering time of spring flowering daffodils from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

Caroline designed a historical daffodil walk at the request of Aberdeen City Council Parks and Gardens, using daffodils already growing in the city, with very few to be purchased and suitable for everyone in the city to enjoy being outside amongst nature in flower in spring.

We were asked to ID an unnamed daffodil at Balmoral, as the former Queen Elizabeth 2nd liked to know the names of plants when she walked round the garden with visiting dignitaries. Following quite extensive research, we felt able to offer an ID.

In 2017 we started the beginning of an ongoing link with RBG Edinburgh and the Herbarium who selected three specimens to be on show at the opening of the Backhouse Heritage and Education Centre and Scotland’s first Daffodil Festival, one being Ranunculus arvensis included by Linnaeus in his groundbreaking ‘Species Plantarum’ in 1723 considered to be the starting point of the system of naming plants  the basis of a common language for speaking about a plant around the world, this is important in trade and the making of food, drink, medicine, poisons, etc.

The Backhouse signatures are confusing on the many of the herbarium specimens making assignment difficult, so we are pleased at Backhouse Rossie Estate to offer our support in clarifying these for RBG Edinburgh Herbarium.

We work with Cambridge University on the inspirational ‘Downing College ‘Narcissus project and give talks and walks offering information on the benefits of Narcissus in medicine, the environment, skin care. perfumery, culture. We display new varieties of bulbous flowers not been seen before, or heritage flowers unseen for centuries, to give visitors and the gardening public a better understanding of the importance of plants now and through the centuries to humankind.

We write up our research offering new knowledge or ‘untangled’ knowledge into the world, last year we delivered a paper at Cambridge University to the Downing College Bulb Steering group, this year we worked with the Royal Horticultural Society and the article is in their digital online library which can be accessed by all. We also contribute to the American Daffodil Society, where articles are also available online across the globe. We also hold research and information at Backhouse Rossie and give talks and tours around this to groups of over 8 people, this year to National Trust for Scotland Staff and volunteers in Fife.

We enjoy working with Byam Trotter of Trotter’s Independent Condiments, Ladybank Butchers – and welcome other producers to join us. At Scotland’s Daffodil Festival we host a number of Fife based food and drink producers. For our weddings and events, we provide a preferred local suppliers list detailing caterers and florists who have a strong network of established local producers.

Our unique garden design blending art and science, with input from the King’s garden designer, includes the Longest Rose Archway in Scotland, a unique water feature and the only scientific collection of Narcissus in the world. The garden is a Royal Horticultural Society Partner Garden and has been restored over 20 years using recycled, environmentally sound materials and talented local masons and joiners working in traditional ways using traditional methods.

Where else can you enjoy the unique history which unfolds from the minute visitors come through the entrance doors, to sit amongst nature and bird song, on The Kitchen patio enjoying the menu which includes ingredients grown on the estate and our own condiments range. We are all about a peaceful, relaxing and restorative environment. Kind to nature and kind to all.

We have grown organically but remained grounded in our core values. We recognise the untapped potential in our sector but are aware a good life balance is important. The people we work with have been with us for a few years or have settled in quickly, and they are fantastic. We have noticed not only an increase in our business across all areas this year (2025), but larger international organisations have expressed an interest in linking with us, perhaps helped by Caroline’s appearance on The Beechgrove Garden in early May 2025, which showed another side of the work we do here.

FFF has given us connections & a network – as well as Emma – who recently talked to the NE Fife LTA membership about what FFF does and can do.
We have also hosted a FFF networking event in the Flower Barn, which gave us a lovely opportunity to showcase our homegrown produce and gardens to fellow members and make new connections.

The idea of us all working together using each other’s products is very appealing.

Well, how about a Ploughman’s platter with Scottish cheeses and great estate ingredients including homemade chutney, trendy pickles and crispy slaw, fresh home grown lettuce and sweet tomato salad with some of our own fabulous Mary Queen of Scots Elderberry dressing and apples from the trees growing beside The Kitchen. Or a wild garlic toastie followed by our delicious home baked treats, maybe a slice of chocolate cake with rose petal icing and a barista coffee, or a Backhouse afternoon tea with friends.

See nature, enjoy peace, eat well.

Relax amongst the flowers and scents in the walled garden, enjoy sunny lawns with open views to the Lomond Hills, a spot of 9 hole putting, discover the beautiful mature tree walk….and more, but whatever you do just breathe in Fife’s clean fresh air and relax, you never know this may become ‘your favourite happy place’.