With many plants coming into flower later than usual because of the long, hard winter I had fully expected the orchids to do the same but, as we walked along the exit road from the car parks in front of Dunrobin Castle yesterday evening, the first glorious flowers were out, almost to the day we first saw them last year.
At the time, and with some uncertainty, I identified them as northern marsh orchids. The shape of the flowering head is rather too pointed, and the lip has pale markings rather than the more common dark, but otherwise the features appear to me to fit the identification - see Hardy Orchid Society's web page
here.
Three orchids along the road edge were just coming into bloom but, if last year is followed, there will be about fifty at this site - unless the castle's groundsmen take it into their heads to mow the verges. With the orchids flowering here they should be appearing in their hundreds at Littleferry, so a visit there is urgent.
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