Heartlands - Ben Lawers

TELLING THE STORY OF THE HEARTLANDS PANEL

Elizabeth lives in Pitlochry and is a retired teacher and printer. She writes:

I had always enjoyed sewing at school and continued my interest when I went to Murray House College of Education in Edinburgh. In addition to teaching primary subjects I was qualified to teach sewing and handicrafts at secondary level.

Alpine plants have been part of my life since I married over sixty years ago. We bought our first house from a lady who was well known in Alpine circles and even had alpine flowers named after her, and she had many different types of plants, including a very fine alpine garden, within the grounds of her new home as she travelled extensively in search of rare plants. My mother’s green fingers have been inherited by my son who is a keen gardener and has his own Alpine garden in the south of England. The tapestry panel was an opportunity to bring two strands of my interests together.

The National Trust land on Ben Lawers and the neighbouring Tarmachan range are designated a National Nature Reserve, a Special Area of Conservation and SSSI. Ben Lawers, part of a ridge that includes six Munros, is the 10th highest mountain in Scotland at 914m, and is well known for the diversity of its arctic-alpine habitat and wide selection of nationally rare alpine plants due to its height and underlying geoology. The mountains form part of the Loch Rannoch and Glen Lyon National Scenic area, one of the 40 in Scotland to define areas of exceptional scenery in order to protect it from unsuitable development.