House of Tongue

Highland – Caithness & Sutherland

In Person

2026 Theme

Pollinator ecologist Dr Miranda Bane  will lead guided walks in the garden, showing how to keep an eye out for bees, butterflies,and other important insects, how to conduct FIT counts, and how to encourage pollinator populations in your garden.

Activities for kids will include flower pressing, and pollinator colouring sheets will be available.

Walks will be at 11am and 3pm, dependent on weather and demand, and Miranda will be on hand both days to answer questions.

Our exhibition this year will display the work that the Tongue Gardening Group has been doing to document our local gardens’ Herbarium. This project has so far pressed and recorded over 60 specimens, along with personal, generational and historic lore about their associations and uses. The Herbarium will form an important archive in its permanent home in the Strathnaver Museum as a record of local botany and knowledge. This project is supported by Species on the Edge.

We will be showcasing local artists with Julie Gordon’s illustrations of the flowers in the Herbarium collection, and Joe Heath’s pottery, made at House of Tongue, and inspired by the landscape of the north coast.

Visitors will be able to view the Mackay Stones, the three carved pediments celebrating the rebuilding of the house and the marriage of Donald, Master of Reay, and Anne Munro. In the garden the rare stone obelisk sundial from 1714 can be seen on the centre lawn. This style of sundial is uniquely Scottish and made with extraordinary skill.

Facilities

• WC
• Parking
• Events For Children
• Limited Access

Additional Access Information

Access to the interior of the house and to the garden is not completely step free. There are individual single steps into and inside the house, and a flight of four shallow steps with a handrail into the garden. Please ask for assistance as needed.

Parking closer to the house for those less mobile can be arranged with the parking attendant on arrival.

Friendly dogs are allowed in the garden on a lead.

Gallery