Glenborrodale Nursery covers six acres of hillside around the home of Martin and Gill Calver, who raise most of what they sell from seed, cuttings and division. The perennials and shrubs are chosen to survive a Highland climate that forgives very little. The garden climbs the hillside behind the house.
There is little other commerce in the hamlet. Glenborrodale strings itself along the southern shore of Ardnamurchan, beside Loch Sunart, on the B8007. The road is the only way through. There is no pub or shop to be found in the village itself; what there is, mostly, is the loch, the oakwood above it, and a red sandstone castle that is private property.
For food you drive to Salen, seven miles east, where the B8007 meets the A861. The Salen was a hotel and now runs as a licensed café with self-catering rooms. It does breakfasts, lighter plates and more substantial dishes, with local seafood specials when they can get them, and pizza on Friday evenings to eat in or take away. Gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian options are on the menu, and well-behaved dogs are welcome.
Down at Salen Bay, the Salen Jetty Shop is grocer, deli, café and off-licence in one, run by Paul and Anita. There are home-baked cakes, slices and scones, homemade soup, and Paul's famous sausage rolls, alongside Highland cheeses, pâté, venison and Scottish salmon. The drinks shelves carry Scottish craft beer, single malts and gin. The jetty itself has been in the hands of Mark and Jan Drury since 2010, and the charter boat that runs wildlife trips on the loch is called the Mingary.
Back at Glenborrodale, walking is the main activity. The RSPB reserve circuit is 2.75km, about an hour, with 126m of ascent, and it climbs through remnant Loch Sunart oakwood before crossing birch and open grass and dropping back down by boardwalk and a rocky gorge. The last stretch runs beside the B8007. The steep, uneven sections and the flights of steps make it no gentle stroll, and there is no seating along the way. The reserve holds wood warbler, redstart, spotted flycatcher and tree pipit, otter and pine marten, and butterflies including the pearl-bordered fritillary and the chequered skipper. Between 1 April and 15 August, keep dogs close on a short lead. The car park takes six cars and has no toilets; the nearest are at Salen Jetty and the Kilchoan ferry terminal.
The castle sits above a steep south-facing slope, looking over the loch to the islands of Risga, Carna and Oronsay and the Morvern hills beyond. Charles Dunnell Rudd, a diamond magnate who had made his money in South Africa, commissioned it from the architect Sydney Mitchell, and it was built between 1898 and 1902. Later owners included Kenneth Clark of the Paisley thread family, who entertained the yachtsmen Sir Thomas Sopwith and Sir Thomas Lipton, and Lord Trent, son of the Boots founder Jesse Boot, who took the estate in 1936. During the war the Navy moved in and Boots staff used it as a rest centre. It is Category A listed, five storeys of tower in Dumfriesshire sandstone, with a walled garden and gates dated 1901. It is private.
Getting here takes commitment. The nearest railway station is Fort William, some forty miles off, and Shiel Buses route 506 runs Kilchoan to Fort William from Monday to Saturday, via Salen, Strontian and the Corran Ferry, stopping in the village on the way, though it's worth checking the exact pickup point and times before you rely on it. The ferry crossing is five minutes when it is running.
The wider peninsula fills the days: the Ardnamurchan Distillery at Glenbeg runs tours of its single malt, and at Camas nan Geall a Neolithic cairn and Bronze Age standing stones sit above the shore. But the pull of the place is smaller than any of that. It is the oakwood coming down to the water, the martens somewhere in it, and the Calvers' garden holding its footing on the hill.