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An Gàrradh Mòr is the historic high-walled kitchen garden at Cille Bhrìghde [West Kilbride] on the island of South Uist, in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides.
Situated just a few paces from the shore, the garden looks out on the Sound of Barra, with its many small islands scattered across an ever-changing canvas of sea and sky. This is where we live and work.
Here in the walled garden, and on our croft on the nearby island of Eriskay, we grow a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and soft fruit, and also keep poultry and larger livestock. These together provide almost all the food we need and - certainly from late spring through to autumn - a modest surplus besides.
So, according to the time of year, and as available, we sell -
- free-range eggs - hen, duck, goose (hens eggs available year-round)
- gooseberries, rhubarb, blackcurrants ...
- tomatoes, new potatoes, courgettes, carrots, onions ...
- spring greens, cabbage, cauliflower, ...
- fresh-cut herbs and salads
- jams, chutneys and other preserves
- trees, shrubs and plants suitable for conditions in Uist and Barra
From Easter to October we also offer teas and coffees.
Notice boards by the south gate show what’s currently available, but it does vary day by day, and even in the course of a single day - especially during the summer school holidays.
An Gàrradh Mòr is essentially our private home and garden, but visitors are always made welcome. There’s generally somebody at home, but if you’re travelling some distance you might want to phone first to avoid disappointment. Call 01878 700828 or email mail@biggarden.co.uk
The half-acre walled garden is worked according to organic principles. We see a three-fold justification in this: environment, health, and quality. There can be no doubt whatsoever that our organically-grown potatoes, cabbages or whatever, fresh from the garden, are far tastier and more nutritious than anything that can be bought in a supermarket, anywhere, at any price. And how can working only with natural materials entirely of this place be anything other than good for the health of ourselves and the environment?
Crops are inter-planted and rotated so that the soil does not become exhausted, and to resist pests and diseases. In early Spring the soil is fed with a compost comprised of seaweed from the shore outside, garden and kitchen waste and soiled straw animal bedding. We sow more than we need, so that if a few seedlings are lost to pests, disease or extreme weather, we have replacements. When propagating, too - whether fruit bushes or trees and shrubs for shelter and ornament, we have to allow for a high proportion of losses to the harsh weather: but we often end up with more than we can use, and so from Easter to the end of October there'll generally be shrubs and plants for sale at the garden 'shop’.
Certainly, there isn't a single day of the year when the majority of the food on our plates isn't from the garden, and the very best the season has to offer: whether that be mouth-watering tomatoes or strawberries, fresh-picked rocket or lettuce, tasty parsnip or artichoke, irresistible jams with gooseberry or rhubarb, or a glass or two of blackberry wine.
Our croft on the nearby island of Eriskay is also worked organically. The croft is a long narrow strip, totalling about 15 acres, running from the rocky north shore of the island for about half a mile to the rocky buttresses of Beinn Sciathan, Eriskay’s highest point. The fully fenced ‘lower croft’; between the road and the shore - with its plentiful supply of seaweed - is certainly the most productive ground and here are found the croft house (which we let out as holiday accommodation) and outbuildings. The higher ground is little more than rock, coarse grasses and heather. At Easter the island’s sheep, cattle and Eriskay ponies are turned out on to the hills - the island’s common grazings, and are brought down again in late Autumn
Our hens and geese have free-range over the lower croft - including the shore with its many tasty morsels amongst the seaweed. The hens are mostly Welsumer and Light Sussex, but also include Araucana, Black Rock and other rare or less common breeds. This is where most of our eggs come from, but we do also keep up to a dozen Buff Orpington hens at An Gàrradh Mòr. Our geese - Wessex, and white Chinese - are left pretty much to their own devices, but in spring they do provide us with a limited supply of very big and tasty eggs.
Our pedigree Hebridean sheep are kept both for their black wool and their meat. Being native to the islands and very hardy, they are ideally suited to the extreme conditions here. The slower maturing of this ancient breed, combined with the completely natural grazing, gives incomparable flavour and texture to the meat; whilst the lack of need for routine treatment with medicines, makes it naturally organic and healthy, For much the same reasons, we hope soon to be also keeping Highland cattle.
Not so long ago, almost every crofter here would have kept one of the hardy native ponies to help with work around the croft, but not least with carrying loads, including seaweed from the shore and peat from the hill. The Eriskay Pony is nowadays exceptionally rare, but are still numerous here in Eriskay and South Uist, but none are used to help with croft work. At least, not yet ...
See also: [The Hebridean Woolshed] [South Uist Self-Catering] [iMaps]
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Paradise
derived from an old Persian word meaning ‘a walled garden’
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In the 5th century, St Birgid - daughter of an Irish Prince and a contemporary of St Patrick - landed on the beach right here - with an oyster-catcher perched on each wrist. A chapel - now long since vanished - was dedicated to her, and from this comes Cille Bhrìghde in Gaelic, or Kilbride in English - both meaning Chapel of Bride. It is thought that the word Hebrides is from old Norse, meaning ‘Isles of Bride’.
