Lochan Garden in Fort William, Inverness, United Kingdom | Garden

After years of designing, planting, replanting, digging and landscaping, our efforts with Lochan Garden in Fort William, Inverness, Scotland, have been rewarded. Not only did we receive the First Prize in the Caol in Bloom competition as part of the 'Britain in Bloom' campaign, but Lochan Garden has also become a haven for all kinds of wildlife.
We try to encourage wildlife to Lochan Garden by planting plants which attract birds and butterflies, and by hanging up feeders and nesting boxes. If you wander around the Garden you are likely to spot a wide variety of birds such as chaffinches, greenfinches and occasionally goldfinches, great tits, blue tits, coal tits and sometimes long-tailed tits. The number of visiting blackbirds increases every year and we see them nesting in the hedges twice a year. We also see families of siskins, song thrushes, sparrows, starlings, hooded crows, wood warblers, dunnocks, wrens, wagtails, pigeons, collared doves and robins.
Our bog Garden attracts a lot of wildlife with birds using it to bathe and drink. You can also spot skaters and other water insects, plus large dragonflies hovering from plant to plant. Hedgehogs are also frequent visitors.
If you are lucky you can see roe deer, although they are not always welcome visitors as they are a bit too fond of the new shoots on some plants and can do a lot of damage in a single night.
Our plants, shrubs and trees are becoming more mature now. Even the Eucalyptus trees we planted seem to like this setting and they have survived many winter frosts.
Guests are welcome to walk around our Garden, relax on a Garden bench, and enjoy the magnificent views of Ben Nevis and surrounding mountains in Fort William, Inverness.