At Home in Gairloch

Pip hasn’t yet completed his walk around the UK with Jane and John because some of the paths were closed due to Covid; so in the meantime he loves exploring his new garden.

One of John’s favourite pastimes is working with wood. This beautiful lighthouse is sitting on a well knotted burl that looks just like rock with a Stevenson creation on top.

Jane and John have chosen to live on the north shore of Loch Gairloch to best benefit from the sunlight and grand views. To the right of this picture and opposite the house across the loch on the south shore is Badachro, where we moored Zoonie on a buoy for the week. We could see her mast through the binoculars, although she was tucked around a low headland.

The croft house was built in the mid nineteenth century under the lairdship of Dr John Mackenzie who defied the demands of the ‘clearances’, “the population in the Highlands can be supported by the soil, without being obliged to emigrate,” he said with the support of his wife, Lady Mackenzie. The croft (enclosed field) would have measured around 4 acres and is clearly shown on Mackenzie’s surveyor, George Campbell Smith’s accurate drawings of the area completed around 1845 and on display in the excellent Gairloch Museum. I will write an in-depth blog about Gairloch Museum, located in its nuclear bunker, and the equally informative and passionately cared for Russian Convoy Museum, later on.

After eight years of neglect they are having a great time unveiling the beautiful garden. They have found numerous plants with edible fruit; rowan trees, alpine strawberries, (yum), raspberries as well as native trees and shrubs like oak, holly, fuchsias, buddleias, and as you can see plenty of bracken to name just a few! They have excavated a sheltered spot for a polytunnel to grow their own produce with the helping warm breath of the Gulf Stream.

In the distance you can see Skye, from whence we had come to Gairloch, around the slightly darker headland above the telegraph pole.

Gairloch (short loch) is a popular tourist destination in the summer with a permanent population of around 600, many of whom live in the new build houses. The parish of Gairloch, in Wester Ross, covers a much bigger area including the villages of Poolewe and Kinlochewe, and all the shoreline of the loch where over 300 more people live outwith the village.