A Tiree tree garden
I’d been really looking forward to returning to Tiree, which is a beautiful island and gives a lovely welcome to visitors. There are very few trees on Tiree though, which meant that a visit to a garden that was positively bustling with leafy trees was not only very pleasant but entirely unexpected!
John is a bird lover. When he moved to Tiree 16 years ago, wanting to attract more birds to the garden, John set about planting a diverse set of trees on his own land. 16 years later, there is now a beautiful, green and leafy garden full of the sounds of bird song and the fluttering wings of butterflies. The trees provide shelter from the famous Tiree wind and are an important habitat for many birds and insects.
After starting to grow trees specifically as habitats for migratory birds, John had an exciting sighting of a yellow bellied flycatcher, the first European sighting of this bird which usually resides in Canada and South America. The bird stopped to rest in the trees at the garden, resulting in bird watchers from near and far rushing to Tiree to gain a glimpse of the rare visitor.
Such is the concentration of trees John has grown that the garden is one of the most notable tree sites on the island. Local primary school children have visited with their class teacher to pick up fallen leaves for use in the classroom, and to experience shuffling through the colourful dry leaves of autumn. A rare experience on Tiree!
John’s garden is nestled amongst a real treasure trove of trees: Hawthorn, New Zealand Daisy Bush, Alder, Black Poplar, Sycamore, Wych Elm, Horse Chestnut, Oak, Beech, Osier Willow, Sea Buckthorn, and a Belgian Willow. I found it to be a beautiful space, and it was inspiring to see how much had been nurtured and grown in only 16 years.
Whilst there are lots of reasons that Tiree doesn’t have many trees – including the salty air and the extreme winds - John explained that there are also reasons for not reforesting more of the island, not least because other ecosystems are in full swing. Disrupting local environments would upset the balance of valuable flowers and plants which themselves support a range of birds and wildlife that have made their homes on Tiree. The machair, a coastal landscape unique to North West Scotland and Ireland, is home to the rare yellow bumblebee (bombus distinguendus) as well as the corncrake and the corn bunting.
Nearby to the house, you can also see one of the only remaining wild native tree areas on Tiree, with a small clump of Hazel trees on the hillside. It is thought that islanders would gather at the Hazels for religious or ceremonial purposes before their church was built.
You can find out more about machair from nature.scot here
Read the Scotsman article documenting the sighting of the yellow bellied flycatcher.