Four of us set out with detailed directions to find this rarity which grows only on two mountains in the North of Scotland. It was a beautiful day but we could soon understand why it hadn't been found in the UK until 1950. Having traversed one substantial hill, you have to go down into a valley and up the other side to the saddle between Cul Mor and its neighbour. Our grid reference said it was on the saddle but we found no sign of anything there after searching in the blazing Scottish sun for two hours. Undaunted one of our group decided to go over a nearby rise to see what he could find. He came back an hour or so later with success. He found one plant and has seen a Ptarmigan as well. The grid reference had a one number wrong. Eventually we found many plants in early flower on the 19th July, most were still rosettes in the rocky, moonscaped ground. Incidentally the view from the saddle out towards the sea is one of the most breathtakingly spectacular in Scotland.
Behind Cul Mor, N.W. Scotland 19th July 1997 Photo by Barry Shaw
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Added on November 12th 2004, spelling corrected 22 03 06