Culzean country park – how an iconic Scottish landscape used designation to secure a sustainable future

When in 1969 Culzean, Ayrshire, was designated as Scotland’s first country park, it utilised legislative provisions intended to provide countryside recreation space for motorists. This paper offers a critical review of the designation process, revealing how this was used by the National Trust for Scotland as a mechanism to manage their prime property, and particularly to achieve a financially sustainable future. It shows how creative financing, bending rules, manipulating expectations, and flexibility were applied through partnerships with public authorities that were beneficial to all parties, while not quite adhering to the intent of the legislation. Culzean achieved acclaim, offered an exemplar to be followed by its counterparts, and informed perceptions and definitions of the British country park. A review of this experience is critical in that austerity is now threatening the existing funding model and new funding models are needed. An understanding of historic processes may help inform present solutions.