Sea sandwort re-discovered at Clachtoll
My son Robin was up for a short while in October 2024. He had not visited the Clachtoll Broch since it was excavated and on 28th we parked at Stoer Cemetery and walked over to it. On the way back he photographed a striking yellow and green plant nestling in shingle about 15m south of the burn which drains Loch an Aigeil (photo 1). I was down on the beach at the time and didn’t see the image until later, when I recognised it as sea sandwort Honkenya peploides.
I couldn’t remember finding it there, and on consulting the Flora of Assynt, discovered that it was last been noted in that vicinity back in 1886, when Archibald Gray made the first record for Assynt, at ‘Clachtoll’. Although the locality is better known as Bay of Stoer, the burn is in fact the boundary between the townships of Stoer to the north and Clachtoll to the south. We returned on 30th (photo 2), assigned a grid reference (NC03892813), measured the extent of the patch (5 x 2m), and took more photos (photo 3).
Distribution
Sea sandwort is a succulent creeping plant of sand and shingle, with separate male and female greenish-yellow flowers. It is not abundant at any of its five other Assynt sites (Achmelvich, Balchladich, Culkein Stoer, Clashnessie and Oldany Island; see map, photo 4). If you want to see it in quantity, then you have to go north to Scourie Bay (NC1444), where it grows in a conspicuous strip on sand along the foot of a small cliff, just above high tide mark.
I must have walked past that spot many times, but the plant is not very conspicuous until it begins to assume its autumn colours, which is my excuse for overlooking it.
P.S. It is possible that Gray actually found it on one of the beaches in the Bay of Clachtoll, about a kilometre to the south. On 8th November, Gwen Richards and I searched all the Clachtoll beaches and storm beaches (except the southernmost), but found no sign of it.
Ian M. Evans