Among the dramatic mountains and sea lochs of Wester Ross, in the north west Highlands of Scotland, is a truly extraordinary garden. Blazed across the rugged, grey-green landscape is a scene so unexpected and colourful it stops you in your tracks – yet the exotic South African plants that bring such vibrancy to this garden also feel strangely at home here. Durnamuck is the creation of Will Soos and Sue Pomeroy, who bought a four-acre croft with a tumbledown barn a decade or so ago and started to tame the land. Experienced horticulturists, the couple met when working at Inverewe Garden – Sue as a propagator and Will in charge of the walled garden – and, for many years, they had longed to make a garden of their own.
When Will secured the job of head gardener at Dundonnell (featured in the March 2025 issue of House & Garden), the pair discovered the ideal plot of land a few miles away on the banks of Little Loch Broom. There they started building their own house: a simple, timber-clad building reflecting the Highlands longhouse vernacular, but with a tin roof instead of thatch.
The garden also began to take shape, with two curvaceous borders forming the backbone, framing breathtaking views over the loch to the jagged peaks of Beinn Ghobhlach and rounded crest of Sail Mhòr. A wildflower meadow, orchard and vegetable garden were added over time, along with a flock of chickens and small herd of sheep, following traditional crofting practice.
The couple’s home seen from the meadow at the bottom of the main borders. Built from timber and local stone, it references Highland longhouses, which often have red tin roofs replacing the original thatch.
Eva Nemeth
Finally, the couple had space to home all the plants they had amassed over the years – in particular, their collection of South African plants, many of which Sue had raised from seed brought back from two plant-hunting trips in 2001 and 2004. Near the house, a series of stone-edged raised beds are devoted entirely to these, with dazzling arrays of gladioli, watsonia, kniphofia, dierama, agapanthus, and other species that come to a peak towards the end of summer. ‘There’s nothing subtle about South African plants, but this is what we love,’ says Sue. ‘If you go to many parts of the Cape, the flora is intensely colourful. It’s a bright, vivid and warm mishmash – like an old, worn rug.’
Will points out a drift of vivid orange flowers echoing the rust red of the tin roof – part of their = collection of watsonia grown from wild seed gathered on a South Africa trip. He thinks these tender perennials, with arching flower spikes in orange, pink and crimson hues, may become more popular as temperatures rise. Orange Watsonia pillansii is the species most often found in the UK, while the pink-flowered W. borbonica is less well known.
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