Add to this grove
I have set up this grove in the memory of my late father Richard B Frere 1922 - 1999. He was a writer, best known for his biographical account of the British naturalist Gavin Maxwell "Maxwell's Ghost" and also a pioneering rock climber and walker with a lifelong passion for nature, the Scottish Highlands and its fauna and flora. In 1938 at the age of sixteen he wrote his first book "Rock Climbs" 'A Guide to the Crags in the Neighbourhood of Inverness. ' With a small band of school friends from The Inverness Royal Academy, and with the help of his father Harold Frere who was the president of the Junior Mountaineering Club, The Highlnad Mountaineering Club was formed. As early on as the late 1970's my father began to chart weather temperatures observing what he considered to be notable changes to the local ecology over his lifetime. Believing that humans are custodians of the places they find themselves in, that our relationship with nature should be one of reverence not destruction, I feel sure were he alive today he would be devastated by the unprecedented rate of climate breakdown and extinction. On the back of my father's legacy, in collaboration with Trees for Life and The Woodland Trust , I have recently initiated a citizen science seed project with the aim of reaching out to the climbing fraternity to help restore the virtually extinct "Montane" species across the Highlands of Scotland. From his book "Thoughts of a Mountaineer" first published 1952, republished as 'In Symphony Austere' 1989. "Always let me love these things - the earth, the trees and above all the mountains: let them bring me comfort when I am sad, strength when I am weary, and when I die, let me be buried in the bosom of the hills where the spring breezes play; give me the certainty of eternal resumption that I may know that nothing is lost and everything returns." -
Read moreDonations
I met the delicious books of Richard Frere through his connections with Gavin Maxwell. What worlds of delight, knowledge and curiosity he opens!
Donated by SF
30/11/2023
"..... we have the captivating sounds of the skylark as our anthem, pouring its praise upon our actions and all the thoughts in our hearts here today."
A soft silence fell upon the group, as all looked in admiration at the Darrach Stane, and then to the wider landscape, in which it had such a powerful meaning for people gone before.
Donated by Peter Wright - Rock Climbs
09/11/2023
"When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible.
When he dies, he is hard and insensitive.
When a tree is growing, it's tender and pliant.
But when it's dry and hard, it dies.
Hardness and strength are death's companions.
Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being.
Because what has hardened will never win."
Andrei Tarkovsky
When he dies, he is hard and insensitive.
When a tree is growing, it's tender and pliant.
But when it's dry and hard, it dies.
Hardness and strength are death's companions.
Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being.
Because what has hardened will never win."
Andrei Tarkovsky
Donated by Yaryna Fedoriv
26/08/2023
“Then I look at the tree from which the acorn fell
and see its great wide spread of branches come out from limb and trunk,
all rooted so firmly in the nourishing soil.
I see the leaves beginning to emerge from their buds,
drawn out by sunshine and longer daylight hours.
The great skeleton of the tree,
which had been bare for months, takes on a green and dappled light.
I see just some of what grows in and on that tree,
in a rich tapestry of lichens and mosses, ferns,
and all manner of small creatures that thrive on our oak.
A bird flies in, and then her mate, and starts to build a nest.
In no time, their wondrous cycle is being played out within the aiken amphitheatre of life.
Other birds come and go, a squirrel or two, moths and butterflies,
find shelter beneath the canopy.
Whilst somewhere down near the roots, a mouse or two,
have built their nest out of last year’s grasses.
This oak I see, and that is represented by these precious acorns is not alone,
of course. And it lives well with many other species of tree.
True, the oak is king, but in nature`s ways, all the species coexist.”
and see its great wide spread of branches come out from limb and trunk,
all rooted so firmly in the nourishing soil.
I see the leaves beginning to emerge from their buds,
drawn out by sunshine and longer daylight hours.
The great skeleton of the tree,
which had been bare for months, takes on a green and dappled light.
I see just some of what grows in and on that tree,
in a rich tapestry of lichens and mosses, ferns,
and all manner of small creatures that thrive on our oak.
A bird flies in, and then her mate, and starts to build a nest.
In no time, their wondrous cycle is being played out within the aiken amphitheatre of life.
Other birds come and go, a squirrel or two, moths and butterflies,
find shelter beneath the canopy.
Whilst somewhere down near the roots, a mouse or two,
have built their nest out of last year’s grasses.
This oak I see, and that is represented by these precious acorns is not alone,
of course. And it lives well with many other species of tree.
True, the oak is king, but in nature`s ways, all the species coexist.”
Donated by Peter Wright / Rock Climbs
12/06/2023
"Saving the pine woods is as important as saving the Gaelic language. Should either pinewoods or the language die, something irreplaceable will have been lost to Scotland. " Finlay MacRae
Donated by Jane Frere / Rock Climbs
10/06/2023
In memory of Richard B Frere, and Gavin Maxwell. A shining example of true friendship and respect, one for the other.
Donated by Peter Lees
24/04/2023
Donated by NR
01/04/2023
Better than stone is a living, growing memorial woodland which can be enjoyed for generations:
“When you know that trees experience pain and have memories and
that tree parents live together with their children,
then you can no longer just chop them down and disrupt their lives with large machines.”
Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees
“When you know that trees experience pain and have memories and
that tree parents live together with their children,
then you can no longer just chop them down and disrupt their lives with large machines.”
Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees
Donated by Terry & Wally Andrews
19/02/2023
« And see the peaceful trees extend
their myriad leaves in leisured dance—
they bear the weight of sky and cloud
upon the fountain of their veins »
Kathleen Raine
Donated by Katia Auvity
29/12/2022
« And see the peaceful trees extend
their myriad leaves in leisured dance—
they bear the weight of sky and cloud
upon the fountain of their veins »
Kathleen Raine
Donated by Katia Auvity
29/12/2022
"For I am convinced that man has suffered in his separation from the soil and from other living creatures of the world; the evolution of his intellect has outrun his needs as an animal, and as yet he must still, for security, look long at some portion of the earth as it was before he tampered with it".
Gavin Maxwell, 'Ring of Bright Water'. Camasfearna, October 1969.
Donated by Colin Mackie
28/12/2022
"For I am convinced that man has suffered in his separation from the soil and from other living creatures of the world; the evolution of his intellect has outrun his needs as an animal, and as yet he must still, for security, look long at some portion of the earth as it was before he tampered with it".
Gavin Maxwell, 'Ring of Bright Water'. Camasfearna, October 1969.
Donated by Colin Mackie
28/12/2022
Your dad would be very proud of this fabulous idea, Jane. As Gavin Maxwell wrote “‘Extinct’ applies as much to an essential mental attitude as to the vanished creatures of the earth such as the Dodo. We can no longer await some scientific revelation to avoid the destruction of our species in this context; the evidence is all there, the writing on the wall. The way back cannot be the same for all of us, but for those like myself it means a descent of the rungs until we stand again amid the other creatures of the earth and share to some small extent their vision of it, even though this may be labelled Wordsworthian romanticism.” Your father and Gavin saw the dangers over 60 years ago. This a great action and legacy for Richard Frere.
Donated by Lesley Kahney
24/12/2022
Your dad would be very proud of this fabulous idea, Jane. As Gavin Maxwell wrote “‘Extinct’ applies as much to an essential mental attitude as to the vanished creatures of the earth such as the Dodo. We can no longer await some scientific revelation to avoid the destruction of our species in this context; the evidence is all there, the writing on the wall. The way back cannot be the same for all of us, but for those like myself it means a descent of the rungs until we stand again amid the other creatures of the earth and share to some small extent their vision of it, even though this may be labelled Wordsworthian romanticism.” Your father and Gavin saw the dangers over 60 years ago. This a great action and legacy for Richard Frere.
Donated by Lesley Kahney
24/12/2022
What a fabulous idea.
Donated by Ken Sutherland
21/12/2022
Beautiful idea x
Donated by Jayne and Paul
12/12/2022
A positive MAGA - Make Alba Green Again
Donated by Robin, Magda, Felek and Obi
04/12/2022
I first met Richard B Frere in April 1963 at the top of Beinn Sgritheall (by arrangement). I slid gently away on hard snow as I reached out to shake his hand. Thus began a strong friendship until his death in 1999.
Donated by David Ward
04/12/2022
Donated by Richard T Frere
04/12/2022
Richard would have been amazed and delighted with this.
Donated by Neville Rigby
04/12/2022
04/12/2022
