The magic of midsummer is almost here and in gardens across Scotland plants are responding to the long daylight hours by stretching rapidly towards the sun.

The solstice has long been recognised as a very special moment in the year and at Crawick Multiverse at Sanquhar, it is being celebrated with sunrise tours where visitors can explore the vast designed landscape at the very moment when the first rays appear across the eastern horizon.

Later in the day there will be open air song, dance and storytelling sessions dedicated to the moods and myths of the longest day.

There’s no more fitting place than Crawick to mark the solstice  because it is here, on the site of a former opencast coal mine, that renowned landscape designer Charles Jencks created a huge landform based upon the galaxies that spin overhead.

With earthforms, still lagoons and an immense avenue bordered by standing stones, Crawick explores our place in the cosmos.

Gardens have long been places of contemplation about creation, from the series of pits used to track the progress of the moon, found recently at Crathes Castle, and which are believed to form the  world’s oldest calendar, to the world class collection of 17th century multifaceted sundials that are unique to Scotland.

These can be found in gardens across the country, including at Mount Stuart on Bute and at Drummond Castle in Perthshire, where an obelisk sundial, carved in 1630 by master mason John Mylne III, has 61 dials and provides 131 ways to tell the time.

Other chronological wonders in Scottish gardens include a sundial plinth carved by 19th century fossil hunter and geologist, Hugh Miller, which can be found at his white-washed cottage in Cromarty and, at Little Sparta in the Pentland Hills, a sundial bench, bearing the motto  ‘Dividing The Light I Disclose The Hours’. This is one of more than 200 artworks created by poet and maker Ian Hamilton Finlay, who used his garden to explore ideas of politics and philosophy.

The largest sundial in the country belongs to Attadale House, which overlooks Loch Carron in Wester Ross. This giant dial, almost 11 metres in diameter, features a gnomon supported by a wildcat rampant, the heraldic sign of the Clan Macpherson. 

Meanwhile at Greenbank Garden on the outskirts of Glasgow, the passing of time is marked by both a 17th century sundial and a contemporary new design by modern sundial maker, Alistair Hunter. Created 400 years apart, these beautiful instruments are a reminder to visitors that time doesn’t stand still.

For more information on these and other beautiful gardens visit www.discoverscottishgardens.org.