Inverewe Illuminated

A team of academics, students and gardeners have joined forces to transform Inverewe this winter to welcome visitors beyond daylight hours.

The garden will host Inverewe Illuminated every weekend from 29 November until 22 December.

The project is an artistic interpretation of an imaginary underwater journey from the shoreline to the reefs hidden beneath Loch Ewe.

The event will take visitors along an illuminated path, where plants and trees are re-imagined as fantastic undersea plants and animals. Light and projection techniques will highlight individual plants that may go unseen during daylight, showing the garden’s stunning plant collection in a whole new light.

Malcolm Innes, Director for the Art & Design Research Centre at Edinburgh Napier University said: ‘The garden is a cornucopia of exotic and dramatic plants. The visual experience during the daytime is a wall of lush vegetation and it can be difficult to appreciate individual plants. At night, careful application of small amounts of light gives us the chance to reveal these plants in a way that’s impossible during the day.

‘The aim of the project is to inspire visitors to look more closely at the fantastic range and diversity of foliage, flowers, colours, shapes and sizes of plants within the garden.’

The project has been funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Funding Council, and developed by the artistic team who designed the Botanic Lights event in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. The artists have worked with students from MA Lighting Design and MA Motion Graphics programmes at Edinburgh Napier University as well as the management and gardening teams at Inverewe to create this unique experience.