A TOP Wee County tourist attraction has created a digital audio tour which can be listened to from anywhere in the world.

Visitors to the Japanese Garden at Cowden will be able to download the audio from the Geotourist app while they wander the site – or it can be downloaded and listened to by anyone no matter where they are.

Created in its entirety during the UK lockdown period, the tour is currently being used by visitors who visit the garden in pre-booked time slots to ensure that social distancing guidelines are met and adhered to.

The story of the Japanese Garden spans over a century. Nestled in the Ochil Hills, the Japanese Garden forms part of the Cowden Estate. The trail skirts the lake and explores other parts of the garden, as it explains how the garden was designed and created by Ella Christie, adventurer, explorer and visionary.

Travelling to Europe in her childhood, Ella became extremely adventurous following her father's death in 1902 and journeyed to remote locations, including Kashmir, Tibet, Cuba, the Silk Road, China, Korea and Japan.

The garden at Cowden captures Ella's vision and sense of discovery, with specialists, such as Taki Handa, brought from Japan to ensure that the details of the garden were in keeping with the principles of Japanese landscaping. Plants and shrubs were imported from Japan, along with several antique stone lanterns.

The garden was vandalised in the 1960s and remained closed and in a state of disrepair until 2014, when Ella's great-niece, Sara Stewart, began a fund-raising campaign. The garden enjoyed its first full season in 2019.

The Geotourist trail of the Japanese Garden, Cowden, has been made possible by generous funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic Environment Scotland.

For more information, go to The Japanese Garden, Cowden.