Bad a’ Ghrianain, Achmelvich: an intriguing landscape (part 2)
In the first of these two articles, we explained how we happened on this small part of the Assynt landscape on 8th March 2025 and something of its geology and history. We explored it on the following day in the company of bryologist friend Gordon Rothero. Our route is shown on an enlargement of the 1:25,000 O.S. map (photo 1).
Briefly, we entered the area about 100m north of the ‘sluice’ on the Manse Loch, wandered along the base of the crags on the north-western edge of the large boggy basin (Raon na Ceardaich), through an old shieling and up to two 18th century house sites (photo 2). We then turned east, across the bottom of some large grassy areas running up the hill (photo 3), cut across to another ruin and then south to a large pool and the surrounding mire. Continuing south, we reached the upper edge of woodland on the north bank of the Manse Loch, and made our way back to the ‘sluice’.
Bryophytes
Gordon recorded 62 mosses and 12 liverworts in the five hours we spent in the area. Mosses of note included a small cushion of black-tufted moss Glyphomitrium daviesii on a gneiss crag near the start (NC091250, photo 4). This is a Scottish west coast species of ‘moderately base-rich’ rocks and its frequent occurrence in Assynt was one of the discoveries made by Gordon in his ten-year-long survey for the Flora of Assynt (2002).
He also found, on another gneiss crag near the end of our visit (NC094250), two other cushion mosses that are also indicators of base-rich rocks, with distributions centred on Highland Scotland, string Grimmia G. funalis and the much rarer North Grimmia G. longirostris.
The mire south of the pool (photo 5) looked relatively untouched by human activity, unlike much of the rest of the landscape, and it did yield a couple of interesting bog-mosses. There were wine-red mats of one of two closely-related species of the magellanic bog-moss, Sphagnum medium, with, threaded through its stems, the yellowish shoots of a characteristic liverwort bog-moss flapwort Odontoschisma sphagni (photo 6). There was also at least one chestnut-brown hummock of Austin’s bog-moss Sphagnum austinii (photo 7), a good indicator species of undisturbed blanket bogs, also containing O. sphagni.
Lichens
The gneiss outcrops around the edges of the area bore the usual colourful variety of lichens (photo 8). Three in particular attracted our attention near the start (NC093250), dark brown tufts of Cornicularia normoerica (photo 9) and, nearby, two of a group sometimes called ‘rock tripe’, Umbilicaria torrefacta, with fretted thalli, and U. polyrrhiza, with a fuzz of black rhizines around their edges (photo 10). Towards the end of the day (NC095254), we also came across the coral-like tufts of Stereocaulon vesuvianum (photo 11). Most of these species are indicators of nutrient-enriched or metal-rich rocks.
Vascular plants
The three of us logged 74 species of vascular plants, mostly from their leaves, which was a reasonable tally given the earliness of the season.
Away from the woodland at the southern end of the area, trees were scarce, not surprising given the description of the area as a ‘fine grazing farm’ in Home’s Survey of 1774. There was a rowan at the corner of one of the ruined houses, some scraggy downy birches and a few hazels in inaccessible crevices on the crags. A small group of grey willows, in a marshy area, had been trashed by the red deer which are now the only large herbivores present. Scattered patches of ivy were noted on outcrops well out of reach of livestock (photo 12).
Ferns were few, apart from bracken, with two spleenworts on one area of base-rich gneiss, black Asplenium adiantum-nigrum and maidenhair A. trichomanes ssp. quadrivalens.
Well-drained areas at the base of the crags harboured wild thyme and, in at least two places, the bronzy-green rosettes of pyramidal bugle (at NC092251 and 094250); Assynt has more of the latter than anywhere else in Scotland. We also enjoyed the scattered early flowers of primrose Primula vulgaris (photo 13), a good sign of damper, somewhat richer, ground.
Other indications of the basicity of waters leaching out of the rocks included black bog-rush Schoenus nigricans in a couple of wet places, and a stonewort Chara virgata in a small burn north of the bog pool.
However, quite the most interesting find, made by Gordon, was of some strawberry-like leaves in the grassy sward below one gneiss outcrop. The terminal tooth on each leaflet was shorter that the two adjacent ones, a giveaway for barren strawberry Potentilla sterilis (photo 14). This is an uncommon species of grassland and woodland in Assynt, first found locally in 1992 and only known from seven tetrads.
We did not attempt to list the flora of the large grassy areas, since they were very close-grazed; that can wait for another visit later in the year.
The pool will probably also provide some additions later; the only obvious aquatics were last year’s leaves of white waterlily Nymphaea alba washed up around the edge, together with some unusually large old fruiting stems of bog asphodel Narthecium ossifragum on the island (photo 15), which must have been quite a sight last autumn.
Animal life
Birds were predictably scarce, as always in the interior of Assynt prior to the return of meadow pipits and skylarks, but there was a cock stonechat calling from one of the house ruins and Gordon flushed a woodcock from woodland on the southern side of the area.
There was a drinker moth caterpillar north of the ‘sluice’, and Gwen also identified a small but colourful tortricid moth Acleris hyemana (photo 16), whose larvae feed on heather and bilberry. The only previous records of this species in the north-west are from Nedd and Torbreck, where we live.
We shall look forward to a follow-up visit later in the year, to fill out the list of vascular plants and add more insects and birds.
Ian M. Evans, Gwen Richards