Hotels near the Winter Gardens

One of Scotland's top free attractions, the Winter Gardens on the South Side in Duthie Park is worth visiting at any time of the year. Highlights include the Japanese Gardens, the Antipodean plants in the Flora Hall and the largest cacti collection in Britain.

A bequest to the city from Miss Elizabeth Crombie Duthie, Duthie Park was laid out by 1883, with the Winter Gardens - or Palm House, as it was then known - following in 1899. While the original Winter Gardens edifices were demolished in the late 1960s, since the 1970s they have been slowly replaced with new structures. It is fascinating to think that, just like Kew Gardens in London, Aberdeen's gardens have been bringing the beauty of tropical plants to north-east Scotland for over a century.