An impressive avenue of mighty Redwood trees that once served a country priory in Perthshire’s Carse of Gowrie contains among the first examples of Sequoia giganteums planted in Scotland. Germinated from seeds received from America by local landowner, farmer and grain merchant Patrick Matthew, these trees date from the 1850s.
Sadly the sweeping driveway to Rossie Priory, once over a mile long, has since been truncated by a dual carriageway but the curving lines of towering 160-year-old Redwoods remain, flanking a short grassy path that extends from the eastern edge of the village of Inchture, and are a truly impressive sight.
From an old gate lodge opposite the local primary school, the avenue now runs briefly below the Redwoods before ending in a playing field. In its day the driveway would have continued north past the ruins of Moncur Castle and Rossie Lake before curving gently right to reach Rossie Priory. The dualling of the then A85 – now A90 – between Perth and Dundee and the bypassing of Inchture in the 1960s resulted in this approach being severed and a new access to Rossie Priory was provided from the B953 Inchture to Abernyte road via the hamlet of Baladgarno. Thankfully the trees survived this upgrade.
After some initial confusion, Matthew was credited with being the man who introduced the Redwood to Britain, if not the world outside America. His seeds, sent home among a consignment of cones and branches by his two sons John and Charles, who had travelled to California in the search for gold, arrived in August 1853. He successfully germinated and propogated them and planted them in various locations in the Carse of Gowrie, at a time when Victorian landowners where in search of the next big thing for their estates.
And the Redwood was certainly the next big thing. Newspaper reports of the time proclaimed that thanks to Matthew, the Carse was ‘first place to grow the tree outside of its native habitat’. He is apparently quoted as saying: ‘These seeds mean more to me than any amount of gold.’
In addition of the Avenue of Redwoods at Inchture, Matthew planted five trees at Megginch Castle, Errol, one at Inchrya House, St Madoes, two at Gourdiehill Estate (which he managed) and two at Ballindean House, Inchture. A 31-tree avenue at Errol Park was planted after his death but is widely accepted to have come from the seeds he received, as are many individual trees scattered across the Carse of Gowrie and surrounding lands. Nearby, Redwoods can be found at the Dundee Botanic Gardens, behind Camperdown House, in the city’s Camperdown Park, and in the grounds of the Invercarse Hotel, Dundee.
In addition to his tree planting activities, there is evidence to suggest that Matthew also developed a theory of evolution by natural selection ahead of Charles Darwin, although he did not further develop or publicise his ideas beyond the publication of a book in 1831 entitled ‘On Naval Timber and Arboriculture‘. Matthew died in 1874 at the age of 84 and was buried in the graveyard at Errol.
Giant Redwoods are coniferous trees with a spongy reddish bark that is remarkaby fire resistant, enabling them to survive in areas prone to forest fires. They can grow to over 350 feet (106 metres) high and, according to the Scottish Redwood Trust, there are at least 3500 in Scotland, most in parkland, on country estates or in the grounds of mansions. Ironically, while they are now considered to be a threatened species in their native California, they thrive in the warm and wet Scottish climate.
The Avenue of Redwoods in Inchture contains 41 trees in all – 16 on one side, 25 on the other. There is also an information board installed by Perthshire Big Tree Country detailing Matthew’s contribution to the development of the species in Scotland.
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