Scotland Day 9: Inverewe Garden to Skye

On the morning of June 24 we traveled through some beautiful areas and arrived at Inverewe Garden. (Pronounced Inver-you, in case you're interested.) This is a wonderful large garden on Loch Ewe created by Osgood Mackenzie who was born in 1842. He bought the property and started planting things in 1862. The garden was near complete by 1870 and by the end of the century it was flourishing. Inverewe is far to the north, about the same latitude as Canada's Hudson Bay. But because of the Gulf Stream, it's much warmer in winter than you would expect. The land here was originally very rocky and peaty, but Mackenzie had soil imported (perhaps from Ireland). The wind off the Atlantic can be extreme here but he planted a pine tree wind break to protect his exotic plants he gathered from all over the world.

The garden is divided into many sections including ponds and bogs. Several huge rhododendrons were in full bloom. In Scotland rhododendrons grow like weeds and in some areas they have to be pulled out so they won't overwhelm native plants (not in this garden, but other places.) About 200,000 people visit Inverewe Garden each year.

Certain parts of Inverewe Garden looks out over Loch Ewe (below.)

We ate lunch at a restaurant at Inverewe then headed on toward Isle of Skye. We passed many lochs including Loch Maree. We traveled over the Skye Bridge and stopped for photos, then headed toward our hotel in Broadford. (See the lighthouse beneath the bridge?) The wind was blowing so hard out here and it was freezing cold. But we still went outside and explored around the hotel and took a walk down the street to a park and across a bridge. Broadford is a really small town and the scenery is gorgeous. With the wind, it was about the same temperature here as it was in Orkney and I needed 5 layers of sweaters/jackets. We stayed two nights on Isle of Skye.