Achmelvich: rediscovering a local landscape (part 1)
Some background
We have always considered the area behind the two beaches at Achmelvich (NC0524/0525/0625) to be one of the richest in Assynt from a botanical point of view. Its grassland is certainly good for orchids, with other noteworthy plants such as spring squill (see Orchid hunting at Achmelvich (part 2, posted July 26th 2020) and Achmelvich: some puzzling orchids, posted March 7th 2023).
There have also been some unusual additions to its flora over the years, such as cowslip, harebell and, more recently, pasque flower (see Mystery plant at Achmelvich and the Update, posted April 17th 2023 and May 17th 2023). We have recently discovered, incidentally, that wind-borne seeds of the last, native to limestones in southern England, may have originated in the garden at 109, Achmelvich, where it has been grown for many years by Vera and John Whitely.
Local Nature Conservation Sites
Earlier this year our knowledge of this area was put to the test. The Highland Council is in the process of identifying areas important for nature, out-with those already designated, as candidates for listing as Local Nature Conservation Sites. This is part of their response to a national initiative called the 30×30 Framework, details of which may be found on the web-site of the Highland Environmental Forum.
The Achmelvich machair looked like a good place to start, being under sympathetic management by the local crofters, and Andy Summers asked us to put together a list of the species recorded from the area. Rather to our surprise, although its rarities were well documented, we could find little information on the rest of the flora.
Achmelvich was, of course, surveyed for the Flora of Assynt (2002), but only at the scale of 2km square, and falling into two of these (NC02M and S). So, we set out, on a couple of unexpectedly sunny days in November, to see what we could identify late in the season, mainly from leaves and fruiting stems.
First visit, 7th November
Restored grassland and dunes
We started recording in 1km square NC0524 (sketch map with route, photo 1), around the interpretive board just across from the splendid new car park (NC058248). Parts of this area of grassland (photo 2) date from the restoration of vegetation in a huge blow-out in the early 1980s (see a forthcoming article by Bill Ritchie).
Conspicuous were the fruiting heads of common knapweed Centaurea nigra, wild carrot Daucus carota and yellow rattle Rhinanthus minor, with occasional late flowers of smooth hawk’s-beard Crepis capillaris and autumn hawkbit Scorzoneroides autumnalis (photo 3).
We came across frequent plants of the small annual thyme-leaved sandwort Arenaria serpyllifolia (photo 4) and a few yellowing leaves of its relative sea sandwort Honkenya peploides, both exclusively coastal and uncommon in Assynt. There was also one clump of the lime-loving downy oat-grass Helictotrichon pubescens, a sign of the calcareous nature of the sand, derived from fragmented sea shells.
At the far side of the grassland, we followed the board walk through the dunes, which are densely clothed with marram Ammophila arenaria, a tough grass that was brought from the east coast and planted to stabilise them (although it may have previously existed there in small quantities). Walking north along the foreshore (photo 5), we came across pioneering clumps of lyme grass Leymus arenarius, possibly introduced accidentally with the marram, although it does occur sparsely around the coasts of Assynt, often in rocky places. It is the most robust of our many local grasses (photo 6).
Cliff grassland
At the northern end of the beach, we followed a well-marked path (photo 7) that took us up and over the low cliff-top into the next 1km square to the north (NC0525), where we started listing all over again.
The close-grazed species-rich grassland here may owe some of its character to a mineral-rich mafic dyke cutting through the Lewisian gneiss in this area, together with the calcareous sandy soil covering the rocks. Indicator species include fairy flax Linum catharticum, biting stonecrop Sedum acre and wild thyme Thymus polytrichus. We also came across the dainty leaves of lesser meadow-rue Thalictrum minus (photo 8), a species restricted locally to coastal grassland here and at Clachtoll and Stoer.
Other vegetation
As we dropped down towards the shore, our attention was drawn to a conspicuous area of maritime vegetation right at the edge of rocks sloping down to the sea (photo 9). This included several large cushions of the shiny dark-green leaves of scurvygrass Cochlearia officinalis (photo 10). On the edge of a tiny runnel, a little higher up, there was a small patch of tiny, rather contorted, lime-encrusted plants of one of the stoneworts Chara sp. (photos 11-12), in a micro-habitat new to us. Nick Stewart, the BSBI Referee for this group, has since identified a sample as the so-called common stonewort Chara vulgaris. He tells us that it is a ‘distinctly calcicole’ species, which is scarce in Scotland. There are only two other local records (Little Assynt Quarry, NC149249, 1999 and south of Inchnadamph, NC2520, 1908), so a good find.
There is a substantial sheep fence running out onto a rocky point here and we made our way back along it towards the track up to the crofts. In the grassland we came across the whitened skull of a rabbit (photo 13). We had seen no signs of rabbit scrapes and burrows, nor did we anywhere else in the area, unlike the situation on sandy ground further north, at Clachtoll and Stoer, where they are a serious pest. Ingrid Ritchie, who has crofted in Achmelvich for over forty years, tells us that rabbits were once numerous, but are now very scarce, for which she and others are very thankful.
Passing through a gate, we skirted a marshy gully filled with narrow-fruited water-cress Rorippa microphylla (photo 14), which is a rare coastal plant in Assynt. This is also one of only three local coastal sites for whorl-grass Catabrosa aquatica.
Burn gorge
We then walked up parallel to the track until we reached the edge of the deeply-cut gorge of the burn draining the lochan to the east (photo 15), where we had lunch.
Fissures in the rocks on the south side of the gorge were stuffed with large garden snails Cornu aspersum, holed up for the winter (photo 16). They were once a rare sight in North-West Scotland, but have recently greatly increased in numbers, perhaps as the result of climate change, and are now a pest on croft ground all the way from here to Durness.
Rocks along the northern edge of the burn gorge are covered in places with thin buff-coloured deposits of limy tufa (photos 17-18), probably associated with an ultra-mafic dyke that cuts through the gneiss along the line of the gorge. Nearby there are numerous tufts of wall rue Asplenium ruta-muraria (photo 19), a lime-loving spleenwort commoner on rocks in the east of Assynt.
Beach
Following a path down the gorge, we clambered down onto the northern beach at its mouth. This is a delightful spot, much less often visited than the main beach. It is flanked on the landward side by very colourful cliffs (photo 20), with reddish minerals supplemented by sheets of orange maritime lichens Caloplaca spp.
There are no dunes as such behind this beach, but sandy gullies in the cliffs do house some marram and lyme grass and crevices contain small clumps of sea spleenwort Asplenium marinum (photo 21) and lovage Ligusticum scoticum, both virtually confined to such maritime habitats. We also found one plant of the fore-shore species sea rocket Cakile maritima in loose sand at the foot of a cliff and, not far above it, a compact plant of dwarf juniper Juniperus communis nana.
Since the sun was beginning to sink, we left further exploration of this northern end of the area of interest to another occasion (see Achmelvich: rediscovering a local landscape (part 2)) and made our way back along the track to the car. In some three four hours we had logged about 72 species, a good start, given the time of year.
Ian M. Evans and Gwen Richards
All photos by authors