The fourth day of our highland holiday in July dawned dull and damp. We’d spotted Attadale Gardens on our way to Applecross a few days earlier and thought, optimistically, that if we pottered around there for the morning, we might be lucky with a brighter afternoon (spoiler: we weren’t). However, the gardens, including a sculpture trail, were well worth a visit, rain or shine. First, a few house and garden shots (the house is private, so you can’t tour inside).

Then the sculptures – there were 19 in total, so I haven’t included them all! These images are captioned with title and sculptor, so hover over, or enlarge, them if you are interested.

Crowned Eagle by Rosie Sturgis, bronze 2001.

Owl by Rosie Sturgis, bronze resin, 2017.

Cheetah by Hamish Macke (bronze)

Roe Deer by Hamish Mackie, bronze, 2013.

Chameleon by Alex Jones, bronze 2004.

Wild boar, bronze, unknown, Thailand.

Urn, mixed slate, Joe Smith.

Obelisk by Joe Smith, Caithness slate, 2002.

Reclining figure by Geoffrey Armstrong, Clipsham stone 1972.

Giant sundial, slate

Finally – there was a tea room, The Old Larder. We had a hot drink when we arrived and sandwiches for lunch before we left: all very good, serve-yourself with an honesty box. And it was warm! We didn’t bother with the outside seating shown below.

Attadale tearoom

Attadale tearoom

So what to do next? It was raining harder than ever, so we thought we maybe wouldn’t get so wet under trees on a forest walk. I told you we were optimists, so we drove on to Balmacara.

The little settlement at Balmacara Square is a mixture of old estate buildings and newer houses, and now belongs to the National Trust for Scotland which carried out substantial renovations. It was good weather for the ducks!

Balmacara Square

Balmacara Square

Balmacara Square

The circular woodland walk we intended to follow from Balmacara was, we discovered, closed for logging about half way round. Our alternative route was, I suspect, a lot longer and we were soaked by the end of it. Good weather for frogs (or are they toads?) as well as ducks, not so good for us – but we’re still smiling! Just.

Balmacara forest walk

Balmacara Burn

Frogs / toads?

Balmacara forest walk

Balmacara forest walk

This was a day when we were particularly glad to be staying in an apartment rather than a hotel. Our clothes went straight in the washing machine when we got back and dried out overnight. Would we have better weather the next day? I still wanted to get to Skye …