Dunoon Goes POP Drinks Garden
An intimate walled garden in the west coast town of Dunoon is filled with flavoursome plants which can be used to make drinks and tell stories.
Elder, clary sage, yarrow and hawthorn mingle as the new drinks hedge establishes in 2025
Plants are ever-present teachers. They tell us that the seasons are changing, that the ground is dry, and that the bees and butterflies are active. They tell us where they want to grow, and where they don’t. They tell us stories about the world around us, but also about the worlds we’ve inhabited over time. That is, if we’re prepared to dig deep.
In the Dunoon Goes POP Drinks Garden, the stories the plants share fall into a fascinating niche. Our relationship with plants to make drinks, both in Scotland and across the planet, and the good and bad that come with our cultivation, trade and production of drinks using plant ingredients. From the transatlantic sugar and slave trade to the cultivation of ingredients that are also good for our pollinating friends, the plants in this garden have many stories to share.
From plants used to make syrups, teas, wines, liquors and beers, there are over 50 species in this small walled garden, which is tucked behind the POP shop on Hillfoot Street, at the top of Dunoon’s town centre.
A sustainable approach
On approach to the POP shop (People Of Place shop), you’ll spot their bright window boxes, which are made out of old window battons and painted yellow. They burst out against the black shopfront, rather like the pollen-filled yellow centres of the flowers as they attract a pollinator. Wander through a tunnel and gallery space to the right-hand side of the shop, and pass the tin-roofed workshops, you’ll come to this intimate walled garden.
The garden was built using reclaimed materials. There are old whisky barrels from Glasgow Wood re-used as planters and for water collection. Reclaimed roofing sheets edge some of the raised beds. Rocks and old tiles found on the derelict site fill the gabion seating baskets along with old wine bottles, creating a mini-habitat in themselves. Designed, built and planted with local people, the garden is the buzzing heart of the POP shop’s community interest company’s drinks enterprise, Dunoon Goes POP.
Gabion seating using materials found on site or sourced locally
Planting highlights
Rhubarb is one of the project’s signature plants. They are growing Victoria, Glaskin’s Perpetual and a mystery (yet-to-be-identified) cultivar which came from a garden off West Bay.
Hops branches ramble up a tall metal frame, creating a leafy tunnel between two raised beds.
A drink-maker’s hedge with hawthorn, elder, hazel and blackthorn lines the more exposed end of the garden. Not only does the hedge filter the coastal winds, but it also provides habitat for birds and insects.
Chicory, a wildflower of Scotland, the roots of which have long been used to make a caffeine-free coffee substitute, blooms alongside other damp-loving plants like marshmallow, burdock and angelica.
Colourful bergamot ‘Poyntzfield Pink’ mingles with sun-loving pot marigolds, primroses, lavender and hyssop.
Fruit trees grow as cordons in big whisky barrel planters, including apple ‘Katy’, conference pear and pear ‘Invincible’.
Bergamot ‘Poyntzfield Pink’, named after the herb farm in the Black Isle where many plants were sourced.
How to find the garden
Behind the POP shop at 28 Hillfoot Street, Dunoon, PA23 7DS
Our involvement
Through our other gardening business, Papaver Gardening, we’ve been involved with leading workshops to design and plant the garden, selecting plants with fascinating stories connected to their themes, plants that also survive in our Dunoon climate. Since we launched Kailyard Herbs, we continue to help tend to the garden, craft stories, and will occasionally sell plants or host workshops from this community-minded coworking space.