Summer Newsletter 2025

Hugh Raven

Greetings from a green and well-watered Ardtornish – where in the first half-year we have enjoyed a full 12 months of seasons. You can read more about storms and drought below. For me the bit that sticks especially in my memory is the eight-week warm and dry April and May – much of it before the midges emerged. Instead, we were joined by a new genus of insect- as you will see below.

We welcomed several new staff colleagues, and the changing direction of our land management objectives. The farm is going fully organic (part has been organic for years), and our native woodland cover is steadily increasing.

We hear more and more often that our visitors make a positive decision to visit the West Highlands – sometimes explicitly to escape the heat of mainland Europe. The Highland land market shows the same trend – as more continental buyers come here to escape summers scorched by a changing climate.

We are also enjoying new partnerships with community organisations, as together we restore the main catchments draining into Loch Aline. The garden looks wonderful – a huge credit to our (currently sole) gardener John. We now welcome the public without charge.

This autumn we open our café – a big change and responsibility, and a huge credit to our endlessly energetic team and new chef Gary.

Kathryn McLaughlin

We have much to share since our last Newsletter. Our focus remains firmly on improving our staff property, creating cosy homes for our team. The turn of the year marked a new chapter for Ania Markiewikz, Senior Housekeeper – when after 17 years, she waved a fond farewell to her beloved caravan and relocated a mere stone’s throw to the newly renovated Flat 2 at Achranich. Our in-house works team is kept busy renovating Hillside 2 and Riverside 1 for staff. Once complete, Clara Montgomery, our new Conservation Manager (please see below), is moving to Hillside, while Hannah Collins moves from West Pier House to Riverside.

Alerted to a serious woodworm infestation at Eignaig cottage, we acted swiftly with contract joiners to remove the worst-affected timbers before making repairs and treating for woodworm throughout. If you fancy a 16-mile round walk….

February marked the end of an era as we bid a fond farewell to Janet Laurie, our long-serving Office Manager. After more than 37 years working here, Janet retired with our warmest and fondest thanks and has relocated from Hillside 2 to Claggan Cottage.

Our maintenance team has been strengthened by the addition of Marco Kammerath – joining us in March, with a wealth of knowledge and experience.

Hannah Collins

Having had a lovely spring – sunshine for much of March, April and May – our guests returned home with bronzed skin and bellies full of BBQ’d venison sausages. The River Aline served as a swimming pool for afternoon dips, the gardens and hillsides a lush, vibrant green. Then came June and July – both much wetter. Our hydropower stations were kept busy.

You have already heard that we are opening a café – at Achranich, the heart of Ardtornish, in what was previously the Farm Shop. The Coal Shed Café will be open seven days a week through the season. Chatting with guests and day visitors, we know how welcome will be an on-site food offering, and we are thrilled to have secured a passionate, experienced chef, Gary Phillips – to deliver an ‘estate to plate’ ethos, making the most of locally foraged produce, Ardtornish farmed meats, wild venison and salads and vegetables from the Kitchen Garden. Work is underway to prepare the space, design menus and pull together a programme of tasty themed nights. When an opening date is confirmed, you will be the first to know.

Highland Council has granted short-term let licences for both West Pier House and Ferry Cottage. Both have stunning sea views, and we’re confident will be popular with guests – especially those who like to watch marine life from the window or fish for mackerel on the doorstep.

Having spent a stint living on the West Pier, I can vouch for the drama of the ever-changing views when I open the bedroom curtains in the morning and regular sightings of harbour porpoises whilst I’m washing up at the kitchen window. Keep your eyes and ears open as we open for bookings over the next 12 months.

Ardtornish House was alive with celebrations for the first half of 2025. In February we hosted our biennial, traditional Burns Supper – the Great Hall buzzing with the sound of bagpipes, the great man’s prose and the clinking of glasses, as almost 90 local friends joined us to celebrate the life and works of Scotland’s bard Robert Burns. You can watch a snippet of the evening on our YouTube channel.

In May, we celebrated the achievements of another accomplished Scot, Alexander Ross – the architect who we thank for the design of countless important architectural works across the Highlands, including Ardtornish House. We hosted a symposium in his name, marking the centenary of his death, with historians, architects and several direct descendants of Ross himself.

John Turner

Since our last newsletter, there have been exciting developments. Perhaps the most striking greets visitors right at the entrance—a stretch of new fencing along the roadside, designed to welcome you in. With the old hawthorn hedge removed, this opens a stunning vista both from within the garden and the road outside.Safety and aesthetics have driven alternations to some of the stone steps, expertly completed by local stonemason Donalds Jennedt. Tree roots had made many of the flagged paths and steps dangerously uneven – so sections have been removed and temporarily replaced with natural woodchip trails – an eco-friendly and visually fitting solution for the season.

Unfortunately, winter storm, especially in October – caused real damage throughout the garden. Ten separate areas suffered, with upturned trees, broken canopies and hazardous hangers. As the sole full-time gardener since September, tackling this level of destruction was a daunting task. Thankfully, part-time winter support from Steve Hardy (when his duties as the Rahoy Hills warden allow) and the recent arrival of local tree surgeon George Logue have made the recovery possible. One particularly valuable tree proved too good for firewood – so instead was mulled on-site by George Beckett of Savary Timber, using his mobile mill, the processed timber now being put to good use locally.

When I became Head Gardener, moss coverage was one of the biggest issues across all lawns—a common challenge on the West Coast, but here unusually dense. With a few subtle changes to our lawn management, and a few closely-guarded secrets, things have improved a lot, even before scarification or aeration. We do this without chemical sprays, embracing a more holistic and sympathetic approach to lawn care.

The Lochaline Grassmen continue to do our mowing, and with this year’s unseasonably dry and warm spring, we’re seeing a noticeable reduction in moss and encouraging new grass growth. While not all our lawns are formal in style, it’s rewarding to see them “green up” with native grasses, making them more usable and enjoyable for all.

This year, the Kitchen Garden has had to take a back seat. With Ardtornish Gardens open every day of the year (except in storm conditions), I made the call to prioritise health and safety across the main gardens. That said, some limited growing will still take place, and with a new gardener expected to join the team soon, the Kitchen Garden should be back in full swing before long. In the meantime, I’ve begun work on restoring the tunnels – starting with framing new doors and preparing for the re-skinning of one or two of them, now underway with LJM Joinery from Mull.

Kenny McLaughlin

Don’t ‘Peak’ Too Soon….

Kat and I have spent many days this year cooking up a storm in the commercial kitchen of Ardtornish House, preparing hundreds of ready meals: lamb curry, venison chilli, butternut squash curry, and beef casserole. ‘That’ll do us for the summer season’ we said confidently…. Nearly 400 meals sold later and I think we’ll be back in the kitchen rather sooner than we thought. The Farm Shop has now moved, relocated with other items we sell to the Old Dairy Gift Shop, as we work on the new café.

Away from Ardtornish, Scott Pickles and I took on what is becoming our annual charity challenge – this year the national Three Peaks – not once, but twice in 48 hours, completing it with 1 minute 30 seconds to spare. It was as hard as it sounds, and we both ended up with more than our fair share of aches and pains. But those are quickly forgotten as we think ahead to what we might do next year….

Henry Dobson

The deer? The sheep? The cattle? The people? The woodland? The wildlife? Gardens, recreational or food-producing?

‘Sheep first’ resulted in the eviction of the Gaels two centuries ago. ‘Deer first’ in Victorian times shrunk our rainforests to the patches that remain today. ‘Forestry first’ 80 years ago saw disappearance of farms and wildlife under plantation conifers. The ‘best’ use of land on the West of Scotland has evolved for three centuries – depending on the ‘best’ business model or political expediency of the day. Livestock, forests and deer are all needed. Just not to the exclusion of each other, to the exclusion of people or the exclusion of nature.

Is Ardtornish committed to the recovery of our rainforests, open habitats and wildlife populations? Yes. Is Ardtornish keeping livestock, gardens and deer stalking as an integral part of the land? Yes. What are we committed to doing better? Community involvement. We want to be part of delivering what the community wants.

As the person tasked with pulling all this together – will it be straightforward? Based on two decades doing just this in Lochaber and West Argyll, I can say with confidence: most definitely not! But the future of land is secured when there is a real connection and involvement from the people that live on and around it. Less future flip-flopping.

I have joined Ardtornish because I am convinced that we are trying to do the right thing by the land and our neighbours that live on and around that land. Doing the right thing requires change, and change is not always easy. Thankfully I am part of a strong team. Our land team includes managers for sheep and cattle, gardeners, ecologist, deer stalker and a forester.

John ‘Weeb’ Nudds recently left his job at Ardtornish to focus on his own sheep enterprise. James Laurie, James Shanks and Davy Shaw have a busy summer starting converting the full farm to organic. Lambing and calving are over for another season, and significant stock sales prepare us to transition to the hardy native Luing cattle breed – to farm regeneratively, reducing bought-in grains and eliminating chemicals.

On deer, Willie MacKinnon has another significant deer cull target as we gradually reduce their number to a stage where our land is no longer under ‘high–medium’ impacts. Willie has been joined this summer by a seasonal Ghillie, Donald.

The Ardtornish House gardens are looking lovely – thanks to the constant hard work by John Turner on maintenance and improvement, supported by our local contractors. This autumn John will be joined by a new assistant.

Our conservation manager Clara Montgomery is developing a programme of nature regeneration and monitoring, in harmony with our other work, particularly the deer management and farming.

I am very proud to support this team, and committed to the Ardtornish ambitions for the land, and for working with our neighbours living on and around it. It will take time and I look forward to working with many different people along the way. Do get in touch if you may be one of them.

Clara Montgomery

There is now a Conservation Manager at Ardtornish for the first time, and I have the honour of filling that role. It has been very busy since my start date in March. Thanks to Ardtornish’s longstanding commitment to nature conservation, I’ve jumped into several already rolling exciting projects in landscape in ecological recovery.

Having grown up here I feel a deep, personal connection to this land and the creatures on it. One of my personal passions lies in finding a meaningful balance between ecological restoration and cultural preservation – recognising the role of people as part of the natural environment and working for a harmonious relationship between the two.

In April, we successfully relocated eight nests of Formica Lugubris—commonly known as hairy wood ants—from the Ardnamurchan Peninsula to Ardtornish. These are one of only two ‘true’ wood ant species native to Scotland. While historical records and insight from local ecologists suggest they may once have been found in various locations around the Morvern Peninsula, it’s unclear when or where they were last present on Ardtornish – a loss from most of Morvern, as with much of the Highlands, likely due to centuries of changing forest cover and land use.

Hairy wood ants are ecosystem engineers, and keystone species for the important roles they play in woodlands – dispersing seeds, enhancing nutrient cycling, and influencing tree growth through complex and fascinating interactions with aphids.

The donor nests came from a Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) plantation scheduled for felling. With valuable support from FLS, the Woodland Trust/Arkaig Community Forest (preparing for their own translocation effort), and the local RSPB team in Morvern, we took the hour-long journey with the ants carefully packed in hessian sacks—a far greater distance than is typical for such translocations.

With the return of the rain, we’ll be closely monitoring how our new residents adapt to their new home.

Thank you for reading,
The Ardtornish Team