Chilean Refuge Viewpoint

I spent the afternoon at Benmore Botanic Gardens, which are outside Dunoon but which are part of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.

The event I was attending was a "Celebration of the Chilean Hillside" and although the weather was  very wet (very Chilean , apparently ) the walk was fascinating and very informative.

I summarised it all in a motion I have submitted to the Scottish Parliament which I append below.  These motions are designed to draw attention to an issue or an achievement and certainly Benmore deserves much credit for what it has been doing in the long term to develop a wonderful site into something truly unique.  

Motion Number: S5M-00947
Lodged By: Michael Russell

Title: Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile in Argyll

That the Parliament congratulates the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (RBGE) on the success of the exhibition, Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile, which is currently on show at the Benmore Botanic Gardens, part of the RBGE, and which features a selection of illustrations from the recently published book of the same name; commends the curator of Benmore, Peter Baxter, for using the exhibition to draw attention to the success of the Chilean Hillside at Benmore, which itself is part of the long-term RBGE project that has sought to provide a safe haven for a rich diversity of plants from Chile to protect the gene pool, and notes the highly successful Celebration of the Chilean Hillside, which was held at Benmore on 3 August 2016 and which included a talk and a guided walk with Peter Baxter and the coordinator of the International Conifer Conservation Programme, Martin Gardner MBE, which gave guests the opportunity to see the newly installed interpretation materials for the Chilean collection as well as visit the remarkable Chilean Viewpoint Refuge, which sits among the monkey puzzle trees high on an Argyll, but very Chilean, ridge and which was designed and built by the Argyll-based workshop, Yorik, run by Guy Elder.