Inverewe & Eilean Donan
For the last two days my ears have gradually become accustomed to the soft Scottish brogue of this most northerly country in Great Britain. As a child I lived for a few years just south of Kyle of Lochalsch, down near the city of Glasgow. But it has been many years since I have had the opportunity to come back, and I have finally returned.
Yesterday afternoon our guests arrived from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsch under sunny skies. Yes! You read correctly that the climate this summer here in the west has been inordinately sunny and warm. Perhaps even too dry for those who live here and are not accustomed to the weather, but on the Lord of the Glens, no complaints are to be heard.
Today started with choices, and the majority visited the renown gardens of Inverewe (pronounced inver + “ewe” as we do for a female sheep, though that is not the meaning. Rather it refers to “the mouth of River Ewe”). This is the point furthest north we will reach while on board the ship. At 57.8 degrees north we are at the same latitude as St. Petersburg, Russia, Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast Alaska and Hudson’s Bay, Canada! It is a stunning thought and causes one to stop and reflect on the power of our ocean’s currents. Because of the warm water brought north by the Gulf Stream, instead of seeing tidewater glaciers, we spent the morning wandering in a botanical garden like no other on earth. Open to the elements, it was a botanical peaceable kingdom; we had bamboo next to skunk cabbage, Gunnera manicata from Brazil close to sphagnum moss, tree ferns shading bluebells, to name just a few of the more bizarre neighbourhoods; all this due to temperatures that vary rarely beyond the mid-seventies in summer, and usually above freezing in winter.
Think back to what you were doing when you were twenty years old. At that age Osgood Mackenzie inherited 20 hectares in 1862. However, for not being the eldest son the land was on a barren point of land exposed to raging southwesterly gales in winter, with at the most a few inches of soil between the granite outcroppings. With dedication and perseverance, over the next few decades Osgood slowly built up a windbreak with sturdy trees and using stone walls, imported dirt and seaweed to build up a layer that would support other varieties and species of plants. His daughter and many others since have continued an extraordinary stewardship over this garden of surprises. Today, it is a place one has to see to believe. Giant sequoia and Douglas firs, Scotch firs and eucalyptus tower above exotics found usually in hothouses at these high latitudes. We spent a delicious couple of hours wandering through trails and paths, and after lunch returned to Kyle along roads lined with heather and bracken ferns, watching the lambs graze next to their mothers. Loch Ewe gave way to Loch Maree, and then several more lochs passed by as we followed the U-shaped valleys home. Once formed by glaciers millennia ago, the climate today is considered even warmer and moister than it was when the gardens at Inverewe were first started. There is some wonder as to whether some of the species now growing in the gardens will survive this trend over the next century or two.
On return we heard of delightful times spent visiting the seaside town of Plocton, watching a herd of highland cattle cross the road, and a visit to Eilean Donan castle, one of the most photographed castles in all of Scotland. Soon enough we departed the quay of Kyle and set off through the Sound of Sleat to Inverie, where after dinner a lager or dram of whiskey awaited us in the most remote pub in the United Kingdom.
For the last two days my ears have gradually become accustomed to the soft Scottish brogue of this most northerly country in Great Britain. As a child I lived for a few years just south of Kyle of Lochalsch, down near the city of Glasgow. But it has been many years since I have had the opportunity to come back, and I have finally returned.
Yesterday afternoon our guests arrived from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsch under sunny skies. Yes! You read correctly that the climate this summer here in the west has been inordinately sunny and warm. Perhaps even too dry for those who live here and are not accustomed to the weather, but on the Lord of the Glens, no complaints are to be heard.
Today started with choices, and the majority visited the renown gardens of Inverewe (pronounced inver + “ewe” as we do for a female sheep, though that is not the meaning. Rather it refers to “the mouth of River Ewe”). This is the point furthest north we will reach while on board the ship. At 57.8 degrees north we are at the same latitude as St. Petersburg, Russia, Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast Alaska and Hudson’s Bay, Canada! It is a stunning thought and causes one to stop and reflect on the power of our ocean’s currents. Because of the warm water brought north by the Gulf Stream, instead of seeing tidewater glaciers, we spent the morning wandering in a botanical garden like no other on earth. Open to the elements, it was a botanical peaceable kingdom; we had bamboo next to skunk cabbage, Gunnera manicata from Brazil close to sphagnum moss, tree ferns shading bluebells, to name just a few of the more bizarre neighbourhoods; all this due to temperatures that vary rarely beyond the mid-seventies in summer, and usually above freezing in winter.
Think back to what you were doing when you were twenty years old. At that age Osgood Mackenzie inherited 20 hectares in 1862. However, for not being the eldest son the land was on a barren point of land exposed to raging southwesterly gales in winter, with at the most a few inches of soil between the granite outcroppings. With dedication and perseverance, over the next few decades Osgood slowly built up a windbreak with sturdy trees and using stone walls, imported dirt and seaweed to build up a layer that would support other varieties and species of plants. His daughter and many others since have continued an extraordinary stewardship over this garden of surprises. Today, it is a place one has to see to believe. Giant sequoia and Douglas firs, Scotch firs and eucalyptus tower above exotics found usually in hothouses at these high latitudes. We spent a delicious couple of hours wandering through trails and paths, and after lunch returned to Kyle along roads lined with heather and bracken ferns, watching the lambs graze next to their mothers. Loch Ewe gave way to Loch Maree, and then several more lochs passed by as we followed the U-shaped valleys home. Once formed by glaciers millennia ago, the climate today is considered even warmer and moister than it was when the gardens at Inverewe were first started. There is some wonder as to whether some of the species now growing in the gardens will survive this trend over the next century or two.
On return we heard of delightful times spent visiting the seaside town of Plocton, watching a herd of highland cattle cross the road, and a visit to Eilean Donan castle, one of the most photographed castles in all of Scotland. Soon enough we departed the quay of Kyle and set off through the Sound of Sleat to Inverie, where after dinner a lager or dram of whiskey awaited us in the most remote pub in the United Kingdom.
