Six members and a visitor from New Zealand (with local connections) met at 1100 hrs. on a lovely sunny day (for a change) to explore the rugged coast of Duart north-east of Drumbeg. Our route took us below the north-east-facing cliffs of Cnoc an t-Sean Eoin (hill of the old bird) around Rubh’Dhubhard (point of the dark height) to Loch an Beagan Port (loch of the small harbour) and back though the Nedd woods.
Damp areas on the way down to the shore yielded typical species such as tawny sedge Carex hostiana, marsh hawk’s-beard Crepis paludosa and common valerian Valeriana officinalis. Tucked away in one of these areas (and well spotted) was a dense tuft of the bright yellow capsules of the cruet collar-moss Splachnum ampullaceum, which is uncommon in Assynt and member of a small group of mosses that only grow on dung, in this case that of either sheep or deer.
Towering above us were extensive areas of cliff woodland dominated by downy birch, accompanied by rowan, hazel and aspen, with ivy-covered crags and flowering honeysuckle. The lower parts of the cliffs had abundant roseroot Sedum rosea and, more surprisingly perhaps, in one crevice, robust plants of rosebay willowherb Chamerion angustifolium, in what may be its true native habitat.
The warm sun had tempted out meadow browns, common blues and small pearl-bordered fritillaries and also a few dragonflies, including common blue damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum, large red damselfly Pyrrhosoma nymphula and common hawkers Aeshna juncea. We also saw in this area common toads, common frogs and a fleeting glimpse of a common lizard. Mammals were represented by fox scats and otter tumps alongside their bathing pools.
In the second ‘bay’ from the foot of the cliffs we came across the substantial rusting remains of the M.V. Bermuda, a 19,000 ton refrigerated cargo liner. This unfortunate vessel was launched at Belfast in 1927 and burned out in 1931 whilst the results of an earlier fire were being repaired. The hulk, which was being towed from Belfast to Rosyth for scrapping, broke free and ran aground on an offshore reef on 30th April 1933. It was beached at Duart and broken up on the site, a task that carried on for over ten years.
Stable shingle in the largest bay on the peninsula housed a large stand of the delightful blue-flowered skullcap Scutellaria galericulata and we found nearby some minute plants of chaffweed Anagallis minima. This tiny relative of scarlet pimpernel was discovered new to Assynt (and West Sutherland) in 1991, but is now known to occur around much of the coast, just above the high tide mark. Lunch was taken nearby on hummocks covered with crowberry Empetrum nigrum, fruiting abundantly; the fruit was sampled and pronounced insipid. There were also large clumps of English stonecrop Sedum anglica in flower on outcrops and abundant wild thyme Thymus polytrichus in stony areas. Grassy swards above the shore and shorter areas of maritime heath were speckled with the colourful flowers of eyebright Euphrasia spp. This genus is notoriously difficult to identify, but a small purple-flowered example was probably slender eyebright E. micrantha.
After lunch we followed the coast around to an old dyke at the north-eastern corner of the peninsula, along an outcrop below which is found dwarf willow Salix herbacea at probably its lowest altitude in the British Isles (about 15m above sea level). It grows amongst close-textured mosses on vertical peaty banks in a very exposed situation, which may explain its presence, since it is normally found above 350m.
We then turned south along the outer part of Loch Nedd, where the sheltered situation has allowed much more substantial trees to thrive, and came across an enormous fallen, but regrowing, example of grey willow Salix cinerea; the unusually large trees of this species found on this part of the coast of Assynt are not mentioned in any of the standard works on trees. We also admired a splendid free-standing example of aspen, bearing a selection of the Atlantic lichen flora for which these woodlands are famous.
Following paths through high bracken around the ruins of the isolated house of Duart Drumbeg brought us to the shore of Loch an Beagan Port, which is brackish, filling at high tide, and good for birds at other times of the year. From there we wound our way around further huge grey willows and hazels (some stems of the latter were about 90cm in girth and estimated at about the same number of years old) to a sheltered rushy area probably last cultivated in the 1930s, where a scotch argus butterfly was glimpsed. Beside Lower Duart a pair of Merlins were spotted overhead, a good finish to a most enjoyable day, which turned surprisingly warm on the way back to our starting point.
Other birds seen in the course of our walk included: Buzzard, Common Sandpiper, Great Skua, Grey Heron, Lesser Redpoll, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail (adult and juvenile), Wheatear and Willow Warbler.
Ian Evans and David Haines
Photographs by David Haines
