As part of our commitment to the environment, we are very pleased to announce our new Corporate Grove with the charity, Trees for Life, to support the amazing work they do. The Trees for Life vision is of a revitalised wild forest in the Scottish Highlands, providing space for wildlife to flourish and communities to thrive. They have been rewilding in the Scottish Highlands for over 25 years.
We have started our Hebrides Cruises Grove and have funded our first 25 trees, to represent every year we have been cruising the Hebrides.
We chose Trees for Life because of its reputation as one of the leading experts in wild forest restoration in Scotland. Its Dundreggan tree nursery ensures enough native rare and hard to grow trees are available to be planted in the Highlands. Trees for Life works to ensure the Caledonian Forest grows from the last few patches of the original wild forest that remain so it can grow again in large areas of Scotland. It is helping the wild forest grow at a scale that enables rewilding to happen so nature can look after itself, especially around Glen Affric and Glenmoriston where it has worked for many years.
What Trees for Life are achieving is truly inspirational. The new wild forest will benefit everyone: helping to reduce the impacts of climate change by storing carbon; preventing flooding and erosion by holding back water after rain and; providing opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people to experience and be inspired by wild nature.
Hebrides Cruises will fund additional trees to our Corporate Grove after every season, for every guest we welcomed on board. We are also hoping some of our guests might wish to add their own tree to our grove which can be found here https://treesforlife.org.uk/groves/382692/
We set off on 28 June from Oban for our ten days exploration of the Hebrides with the hope that we’d visit St Kilda. We did, and so much more. The crew (Chris (skipper), Alexa (wildlife guide), Pete (cook), Emma (bosun), were fantastic from the off. They effortlessly transported our mountain of luggage to our comfortable cabins which Emma kept spotless through the cruise, as well as looking after us on the rough crossing to St Kilda through to Caribbean strength G&Ts. Chris was a really good skipper. He sailed the boat well and did his best to find a route that best managed his passengers’ seafaring abilities, and he also had a ceremony to give homage to the Blue Men of the Minch! Pete’s amazing menus incorporated our requests – I’ll always remember his mussels on the first night, his haggis Scotch eggs, my mother’s clootie dumpling and much more – and we appreciated how he involved the kids (9 to 11) in the kitchen. Alexa (with Chris) magic’d up an amazing array of wildlife with huge enthusiasm and great knowledge. We became blasé about the number of dolphins we saw – I can best quote Chris “the weather and the wildlife sightings are some of the best I’ve known in almost 20 years”. The weather was fantastic which enabled us to land and explore Tobermory, Canna, Sanday, Taransay, Hirta (St. Kilda), Mingulay, Vatersay, Rum, Lunga (Treshnish Isles) and Loch Buie, as well as sailing past Neist Point (Skye), Boreray (St. Kilda), Monachs, Hellisay in the Sound of Barra, Eigg, Staffa, Ulva and Iona. The weather was so good we were able to swim off Sanday, Taransay, Mingulay and Vatersay, as well as enjoy the hot tub. This was a trip of a lifetime for us all. We were able to see so many places which have been specks on the horizon for so long. The cruise was magical and extra special. It’s given us memories to last a lifetime!
George Mitchell: 28 June 2018Private Charter 10 Nights