Mackenzie concentrated first on establishing shelter belts of native and Scandinavian pines and built a walled garden.
Within 40 years, he had established one of the finest collections in Scotland of temperate plants from both northern and southern hemispheres.
[3] Mackenzie wrote a volume of memoirs (published by Edwin Arnold in London in 1921), entitled A Hundred Years in the Highlands.
On 26 June 1877, Mackenzie married Minna Amy, the daughter of Sir Thomas Edwards-Moss, 1st Baronet.
Following the death of her second husband, and being without any children, she began discussions with the National Trust for Scotland about the future ownership of the garden in 1950.