Royal visit for Inverewe

The Princess Royal was piped into the garden by PC Neil Rathbone.

She toured the garden, met the staff and volunteers involved in its care and visited the newly created Peace Plot exhibition (28 June–28 August), a collaboration between Inverewe and the Gairloch Museum, commemorating the peacemaking at the end of the First World War. Osgood Mackenzie marked this by inscribing a stone in his garden and creating a ‘Peace Shrubbery’. One hundred years on, Inverewe is recognising its centenary with a parade of willow figures representing those who served, created by sculptor Trevor Leat, and a special plant display.

During her visit, Her Royal Highness saw the results of the Trust’s recent investment in the garden and unveiled the foundation stone for the garden’s next project – a new viewing tower. Over the past four years the charity has renovated Inverewe House, opening it to the public, established the Sawyer Gallery with its contemporary exhibition programme and improved visitor facilities and built a new biosecurity greenhouse to propagate the garden’s unique plant collection for future generations.

The Princess Royal then met representatives of local community groups working with the Trust at Inverewe, and presented the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service to Laide & Aultbea Community Woodland.