Philiphaugh News June 2009

Sadly our glorious bedding plant season has come to an end. If you didn’t manage to get here this year make sure you place your orders early for next year as Robbie’s flowers fly out of the door once ready.

In the walled garden main crops of tomatoes, strawberries, beans, courgettes, gooseberries and potatoes will be available from the end of June. Giant specimens of Cos and Iceberg lettuces are available right now.

The gardens are open daily to the public 8-4pm weekdays, 10 – 2pm weekends.

The estate is overflowing with colour as all the trees and shrubs have come into flower.
Look out for some stunning wild flowers in the hedgerows and fields including evergreen alkanet, ragged robin, water avens, leopards bane(only found in the Borders and East Lothian) and some very tasty sweet cicely that can be found along the river paths.

Ian Girdwood – our resident game keeper and wildlife expert – has started a weekly wildlife walk around the estate.
Join him at 1pm every Wednesday at the waterwheel café car park for a guided tour of our seasonal highlights including birds, mammals, wild flowers, fungi and trees. The going is easy and takes about an hour. Dogs are welcome but please keep them on a lead.
The walk is free to all but if you would like to give us a donation towards the upkeep of the estate please use the box inside the salmon centre.

A cute little barn owl has taken up residence in one of our nest boxes and you can see him live on the owl cam inside the salmon viewing centre. He doesn’t appear to have a mate but we are all keeping our fingers crossed that he will find a lady soon.

Plans for our Salmon Home Coming Event on September 26th and 27th are coming along nicely. We will announce a full list of our attractions nearer the time.

We are still searching for enthusiastic volunteers to man the Salmon Viewing Centre, so if you would like to get involved, please email us at info@philiphaugh.com

Philiphaugh Audio Tour

At the Waterwheel Café you can collect an audio player to accompany your visit.
It’s packed full of interesting facts about the Salmon Centre, the life cycle of the salmon and the fascinating battle of Philiphaugh which will enhance your visit to this beautiful spot.

Some of the audio is about the Cauld and can be taken with you on your walk.

The player can be stopped and started at any point and you can listen to sections again if you wish.

We ask for a fee of £2 for the tour to help towards our running costs and a deposit of £8 which you will get back when you return the player.

The Audio Tour lasts for about 30 minutes, so It’s great value for money!

Salmon DVD

A fully narrated film entitled "The Philiphaugh Salmon" showing twenty minutes worth of the best, recorded images from the salmon viewing centre, will be available to purchase from the Waterwheel Restaurant.

The species included are salmon, trout, grayling, eel, perch, a brief view of an otter knocking the camera and a goosander swimming underwater below the cauld.

All proceeds will be used towards the upkeep of the centre, for the purchase of equipment, cameras and towards maintaining the facilities. The DVD is priced at £7.