To the lighthouse

The Rubh’A’Mhail Lighthouse garden, Islay Undaunted by all that the sea and the storms throw at this barren headland, Suzanne Cobb has worked miracles to create a floriferous garden–much admired by The Princess Royal–that’s literally between a rock and a hard place, finds Tiffany Daneff

- Tiffany Daneff

THERE are two ways to reach the lighthouse at Rubh’A’Mhail, or Ruvaal, on the north-east point of Islay: by boat or by walking for more than two hours across The Hill, a windswept wilderness of cotton-grass bogs and heather moorland riddled with gullies, waterfalls and burns. Those that make the journey to Howard and Suzanne Cobb’s one-acre garden, where salt-laden storms can sometimes topple a grown man, will be amazed at what has been coaxed into growing in this barren landscape of exposed rock and topsoil that is, in places, only 1in deep. They will be even more surprised that this horticultural miracle is the work of a slender, 5ft 1in-tall, 75-year-old woman—yet the indomitable Mrs Cobb, who made and maintains this garden pretty much singlehandedly, is a gale force to be reckoned with.

Golden eagles soar above, sea eagles fly past and smaller birds congregate in the shadow of the lighthouse

Rugosa roses cock a snook at the wind and mounds of improbably delicate Rosa Alba Semiplena and soft-pink R. Celeste have braved the odds to become 5ft-plus-high bushes. In the shelter created by the shrubs and trees, bistort and buddleia, astrantias, nepeta and hardy geranium are a few that have made this rugged ground their home.