Scotish Islands (part 3) South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist

Friday !3th Aug . 2010.
    I've only just found the time to continue and publish my blog on our travels north through the Outer Hebrides earlier this year in June and July. It was a holiday of walking and cycling but one of the reasons for our little adventure was to find the glorious wild orchids that grow on the machair.

Benbecula

 

                                    The Heath Spotted-Orchid

                         Cotton Grass a plant of acid bogs

                          Bluebells still in flower on the 18th June

                              Looking across to South Uist

                            Wild Pansies on the machair

                  The glorious beaches of North Uist around Solas

                         Overnight pitch on the edge of the beach

The walk along this beach leads to Machair Robach the area where the very rare Hebridean Marsh Orchid grows, after hours of searching it eluded us but as a compensation the machair was full of equally impressive
Northern Marsh, Early Marsh and Frog Orchids.

                                   Northern Marsh Orchid

                                    Early Marsh Orchid

                              Videoing the Tiny Frog Orchids

                                         Frog Orchids

                Another Wonderful waik around machair Leathann

 On most days the mist clung to the mountains like snow (later in the holiday we climbed that mountain)

                          The beautiful beach of Traigh Lar

The end of the Orchid Season in our area

   Wed.4th August 2010

         Over the past week we've probably found the last two species of orchids that grow in our area. We came across a few late flowering Fragrant Orchids in an old Quarry in Clitheroe and a couple in fresh specimens in fairly marshy ground at Ribblehead in the uppermost reaches of Ribblesdale. The second of the late flowering orchids is the Broad Leaved Helleborine which grows deep in the woodlands in the Ribble Valley, this year I caught them at their best with some large healthy flower spikes amongst them. There is the late flowering Autumn Lady's Tresses that grows in a few locations around Morcambe Bay in the end of August and into September but whether I seek them out I'll decide later.

 Fragrant Orchid.......If in any doubt about identification a good sniff is all it needs, it's the only orchid with this distinctive perfume

 

                      The two fresh Fragrant Orchids up at Ribble Head. After further reading I'm fairly sure that these two  are Marsh Fragrant Orchids because of the wet conditions they were growing in,
infact they were growing amongst Marsh Hellerborines

   Deep in the woods of the Ribble Valley ... Broad Leaved Helleborines

                     The flowers seem to be much redder this year

Scotish Islands (part 2) Outer Hebrides ... Vatersay and Barra

Tues3rd Aug 2010

                         We sailed out of Oban  on Monday 14th June for the 41/2 hours sail (140 miles) to Barra and Vatersay which is connected to Barra with a causeway these two Islands are the most southerly of the Outer Hebrides.

                    Passing some of the Inner Hebrides on route

     We stayed at a Crofters House for 4 nights by the side of a Sea Loch

                                   Exploring the Island of Barra

                    White sandy beaches and turquoise clear water

                        The beach is the Islands Runway

                                          Crofters House

                         Castlebay the main village on Barra

The Island of Vatersay

These are Heath Spotted Orchids the start of our Orchid search through the Islands,a search that would reveal thousands of orchids as we explored  northwards through the Islands

                                            Marsh Orchids

          Heath Spotted Orchids and growing amongst them ....Lousewort

                              Typical Hebredian cloudscape