Exploring Quinag: south of Lochan Feoir
Some parts of the Quinag estate seem to have been rarely, if ever, visited by naturalists, probably because they do not look very interesting. An example was my destination on 20th June 2022 – the roadsides and shoreline of Loch Assynt to the south of Lochan Feoir, in 1km square 2224 (map, photo 1).
Roadsides are always productive, but the area south of the road is superficially unattractive broken ground, with some wispy trees just showing at the edge of the loch (photo 2).
Southern roadside
I parked on a lay-by about 300m west of Skiag Bridge (NC231244) and walked along the barrier on the south side of the road, until I reached a large domed grey willow between the road and the loch (NC229246), where I started recording.
The first good find was a sprawling plant of stag’s-horn clubmoss, a plant that is scattered only thinly across Assynt. Shortly afterwards, I reached the culvert that carries the burn draining Lochan Feoir (NC228247). The road embankment here has species-rich grassland containing much wild thyme, which was in full flower. Feeding on it were a female common blue butterfly and two small pearl-bordered fritillaries.
Marshy ground below the road, between this culvert and the next one to the west, contained the first of many lesser butterfly-orchids seen that day, together with northern marsh-orchid, heath spotted-orchid and the pale pink form of the early marsh-orchid (ssp. incarnata).
I then struck south across boggy ground to the shore of the loch. The surface was very uneven, the result of extensive peat digging at some time in the past, perhaps after the single-track road was built in the late 1820s. It did add common cow-wheat and some of the commoner bog plants to the list.
Loch margins
The Torridonian sandstones which underlie the peat were first exposed in a sheltered bay on the west side of the small peninsula jutting out into Loch Assynt, where I was surprised to find wood anemone and bluebell.
I crossed over the surface of the peninsula to its southern edge, where I found a small area unlike anything I remember seeing in Assynt (NC226244). It was a deeply-fissured sandstone platform several metres above the level of the loch (photo 3), from which any peat and moorland vegetation it supports had been completely eroded.
Some of the fissures were more than 30cm wide, and dropped down to below the level of the loch, where I could hear water sloshing around in the darkness (photo 4). On shelves and in narrower fissures there was quite dense vegetation (photo 5), containing an intriguing mixture of ‘woodland’ species, such as honeysuckle, primrose, sanicle, wild strawberry (photo 6) and wood sorrel.
Scattered through the area were small spiny bushes of flowering burnet rose (photo 7) and occasional spikes of early purple orchid (photo 8). Trees were few and scraggy, probably due to a combination of exposure and browsing, but there was some regeneration. They included downy birch, eared willow and rowan.
Surface areas with shallow soil had some of the common base-loving species such as fairy flax, wild thyme and common milkwort.
More species of interest
I spent some time listing the plants of the fissures, and having a contemplative cup of coffee. I then clambered along the shore a little further to the east, where the sandstones run down to water level (photo 9). Here there was much northern bedstraw (photo 10), another base-loving species found regularly around the shores of Loch Assynt.
A little higher up the shore, on the edge of the adjacent moorland, was a much rarer plant, the dainty grass mountain melick (photo 11). This is more usually found ‘on rock faces in gorges and in rocky woodland’, to quote the Flora of Assynt (p.166). Altogether an unexpectedly rich flora, albeit confined to a small area.
The presence of base-loving plants on the shores of Loch Assynt is easy to explain, since it is fed by rivers draining limestones and associated strata from Inchnadamph south to Loch Awe. Gales blowing over Loch Assynt must splash its waters right across the ground along its shoreline. Cam Loch and Loch Veyatie at Elphin have similar marginal floras.
Accounting for the woodland species is less straightforward. The fissured sandstone obviously provides a humid environment and some protection from grazing, but how long they have been there? Are they relics from a time when the lower slopes of Quinag were covered with woodland, or more recent colonists and, if so, from where?
Back to the roadside
Having recovered from all this excitement, I walked west, above the shoreline, towards some much larger trees in boulder scree at the base of higher Torridonian crags (NC225245), which added holly and a hybrid willow to the woody species.
I then plodded across the moorland back to the road, crossed it at a culvert (NC224247), and started logging the orchids eastwards on the northern verge. There was lesser butterfly-orchid in at least six places and scattered smaller numbers of heath fragrant-orchid and the three other species mentioned earlier.
This stretch of roadside verge is one of the best for orchids along the A837 between Skiag Bridge and Lochinver, but we have no idea why. The road was doubled in the 1970s, and runs on made ground for much of its length; perhaps its construction involved the importation of limestone from cuttings further to the east. Whatever the reason, both verges are delightfully species-rich.
A small marshy area on the course of the burn out of Lochan Feoir topped up the species list with the propellor-like heads of few-flowered sedge, first recorded from Assynt back in 1907 ‘at base of Quinag’ by the famous English botanist George Claridge Druce.
The tally for the three hours I spent in the area was a very respectable 125 species, including new site records for the early purple-orchid and mountain melick.
A second visit
Gwen Richards and I paid a further visit to the fissured sandstone platform and adjacent areas late on the afternoon of 15th July (photo 12), for her to take close-ups of some of the flowers seen earlier. In the intervening three weeks, hips on the burnet rose had turned their distinctive black colour (photo 13). We noticed on this occasion clear evidence of red deer – dung with coprophilous gill fungi (photo 14).
A third visit
On the morning of 15th October, Gwen and I made yet another visit to the loch shore, with friend Gordon Rothero, to see whether the bryophytes added anything to our understanding of its vegetation. Gordon recorded a total of 58 mosses and 15 liverworts in the 1km square, including the roadside verge, moorland and Torridonian platform.
He spent most time combing the fissures in the platform (photo 15), completely disappearing at times. We were perched a little way back, on the moorland edge, having a cup of tea, and were somewhat alarmed when we heard a loud splash and wild cry. He emerged not long afterwards, quite dry – he had come across a loose chunk of rock, and we had been the subject of a practical joke.
In the event, the platform yielded a mixture of bryophytes, mirroring the vascular plants. Some, such as Eurhynchium striatum, Loeskeobryum brevirostre and Saccogyna viticulosa are typical of woodland; others, such as Neckera crispa, Neckera complanata and Tortella tortuosa, are calcicoles.
However, conspicuous neat hoary cushions on the sandstone above the edge of the loch (photo 16) were Grimmia funalis, described by Gordon as a species of base-rich rocks, especially on boulders on loch margins but, curiously, absent from the limestone.
With a last look at this unique piece of local topography (photo 17), we started back to the road, to tackle another area up the Allt Sgiathaig.
Ian M. Evans