Rob Roy and rhododendrons

Today was dull and drizzly and I drove to Balloch to meet Simon at the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park office. I'd been asked to accompany him around a number of private properties on the east side of Loch Lomond to look at rhododendrons in private gardens which were suspected of being Rhododendron ponticum. The Park authority is engaged in a huge operation to rid the Park of this foreign pest, though how long this will take is anybody's guess. 

We visited a number of private gardens from Balmaha to Inversnaid and Loch Katrine and I found many difficult decisions to make as this naturalised escapee is really a series of hybrids with R. ponticum and other species, with consequent huge variability. The Park can only ask owners if they would like to be involved, and while most people agree, some absolutely refuse, making things difficult for the Park as this operation has no legal standing. 

I was delighted to be driven right around the back of Loch Katrine on a private road, passing this man-made promontery with a burial ground at the end. This was originally a Clan MacGrgegor burial ground, but when the water level was raised to turn Loch Katrine into Glasgow's water supply, Glasgow Corporation raised the wall and built this causeway to prevent the burial ground from being submerged. Rob Roy himself is not buried here, but at Balquhidder, though he did live nearby for a time..