Flora of the Hebrides

Flora of the Hebrides
Planntas

The eighteen trees which represent the letters of the Gaelic alphabet. By Alasdair Gray.
Copyright Gairm Publications.

The Outer Hebrides offer a rich and varied landscape, from peat bogs to machair. The machair, which consists of grassland on sand, home to many different types of wildflower, including orchids, gentians, clovers, and eyebrights. Rare plants, such as the Hebridean Orchid, can also be found. Many theories have been put forward as to the reasons why there are very few trees on the Islands, from Viking 'fire and sword' raids, to climatic change. The true answer is probably the latter, although humans did play a part. Now, there are very few naturally occurring trees, and those mainly on islands in lochs. The problems nowadays for trees to get established is that sheep roam unhindered through the islands and any saplings make a tasty morsal.

The Castle Grounds in Stornoway comprises the major occurrence of trees. It was planted by the then Mr and Mrs Matheson, shortly after they bought Lewis and built Lews Castle. Using imported soil, they planted 600 acres of land with over 70 different species of conifer, broadleaf, and evergreen. The Grounds also contain many different birds, animals and woodland plants which otherwise would not be able to live in Lewis. There are also some Forestry Commission plantations on the islands, although some of these were destroyed by an outbreak of the caterpillar of the Pine Beauty Moth, a few years ago. The caterpillars swept through the plantations, eating all the needles from the trees and stripping them bare. The Forestry Commision was forced to write off the plantations. To this day the bare skeletons stand, highlighting the problems associated with reforestation in these islands.

See also: Fauna of the Western Isles