Inverewe Garden

The Inverewe Garden (also Inverewe Gardens, gaelic Garradh Inbhir Iu) in Poolewe is one of the northernmost botanical gardens in the world. He can come up with a completely atypical for the width and varied planting a privileged situation on the north west coast of Scotland, facing the warm Gulf Stream. Especially in the summer months, visitors are fascinated by a variety of flowering plants.

Inverewe is 57.8 degrees north latitude, or about the same height as the Hudson Bay in Canada or Norway. However, it has achieved a fairly constant high temperatures throughout the year. The lowest ever recorded temperature was -14 degrees Celsius, while the highest was 29 degrees Celsius.

Particularly interesting and extensive are the collections of various rhododendrons (subgroup barbata ), Brachyglottis, Olearia and Ourisisia. Striking are the various eucalyptus trees, which are spread over the garden.

The plants are mainly from Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand (many eucalyptus), China, Japan and the Himalayas (many rhododendrons ) and the temperate South America and North America.

History

The founder of Inverewe Gardens was the Scot Osgood Mackenzie. When he inherited the 20 -acre plot, it was a rocky hill with a single tree on it. The original Gaelic name was on Ploc Ard to German " high chunks ". As the property on the seafront, at Loch Ewe, is, it was also exposed to the elements without protection.

Osgood Mackenzie began to replant the land with native Scottish and Scandinavian pine, which protect it from the elements. In addition, vast amounts were brought from Earth, was allegedly with which the ground made from Ireland fruitful.

By and by then most diverse plants were collected from both the northern and the southern hemisphere. His special focus was on the Walled Garden, a walled piece of former beach, on which a wide variety of crops were planted.

As Osgood Mackenzie died in 1922, the garden was taken over by his daughter Mairi Sawyer. She and her second husband built in 1935 and today Inverewe House after the original was destroyed by a fire. Shortly before her death in 1953 arranged Mairi Sawyer that the garden was taken over by the National Trust for Scotland, which looks after him to this day.

The originally very remote place was always a popular destination with increasing development of Scotland and is visited annually by over 200,000 visitors nowadays.