Sha Raku En
Photo: Gordon Brown / CC BY-SA 2.0, modified.
Overview
The Japanese Garden at Cowden, also known as Sha Raku En or “the place of pleasure and delight,” is a historic Japanese garden on the former Cowden Castle estate near Dollar, in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. It was commissioned in 1908 by the Scottish traveller and explorer Isabella “Ella” Christie after her visit to Japan. The garden is especially significant because, unlike many Edwardian Japanese-style gardens in Britain, it had direct Japanese design involvement from the beginning.
Cowden was designed by Taki Handa, a Japanese horticulturist who had studied at Doshisha Women’s College in Kyoto and at Studley College in England. Historic Environment Scotland describes the association between Ella Christie and Taki Handa as historically important, since both women were pioneers in their respective fields. The garden is recognised as an exceptional representative of the Japanese-style garden tradition in the United Kingdom.
History
The garden was commissioned in 1908 by Isabella “Ella” Christie after her visit to Japan. It was designed by Taki Handa, with later Japanese specialists also contributing to its care and development. These included Professor Jijo Suzuki of the Soami School and the Japanese gardener Shinzaburo Matsuo, who helped maintain the garden in the interwar period. A restoration source notes that the seven-acre garden was designed by Handa, overseen by Suzuki and maintained by Matsuo.
After Ella Christie’s death in 1949, the garden declined. It was closed to the public in the 1950s and later suffered serious vandalism, including the destruction of bridges and buildings. Restoration began decades later under the leadership of Christie’s descendant Sara Stewart, with Japanese garden expertise involved in the process. The garden has since reopened as a restored historic Japanese garden.
Design features
Cowden was laid out as a strolling garden centred on an artificial loch. Its paths, bridges, islands, stones, lanterns, carefully shaped planting and water views were arranged to create a sequence of changing scenes. The design integrates Japanese garden principles into the Scottish landscape while retaining the character of an Edwardian estate garden.
Garden elements
Bridges
Buildings
Enclosures
Waters and islands
Stones
Other elements
Current status
Extant and restored historic Japanese-style garden; originally vandalised and closed after severe damage in the mid-20th century, then restored from the 2010s onward. The garden reopened to visitors in 2019 and is now managed by the Cowden Castle SCIO charitable trust. It survives as a rare early 20th-century Japanese-style garden in Scotland, with reconstructed built elements and restored planting, paths, water features and symbolic garden structure.