In this blog, guest author Rebecca Cornwell shares her journey from a family holiday in Shetland to returning to academia as a mature student and embarking on a PhD looking at the relationship between people and wild plants.
When I first visited Shetland in July 2017, I never imagined that in 2024 I would be returning as a SGSAH funded postgraduate student studying the relationship between people and Shetland wild plants.
How does anything grow here?
In 2017, I was teaching full time in a secondary school and wrangling two teenage sons, one of whom had been promised puffins at Sumburgh for his 13th birthday. After a week travelling round Shetland mainland, we went up to Unst. Arriving in thick fog, we headed for Bobby’s bus stop and up to the Keen of Hamar for the first of several unsuccessful searches for Shetland’s endemic Edmondston’s chickweed.
The Keen was like no plant habitat I had ever seen before. My first reaction, which I’ve heard mirrored by others, was ‘how does anything grow here?’. My love for Shetland and its plants started during that summer trip. And something about the story of young Thomas Edmondston, after whom the chickweed is named, piqued my interest so on return home I began to look for his original plant recordings and bought a copy of The Young Shetlander written by his mother after his untimely death on as the naturalist on the voyage of HMS Herald.
I returned to Shetland as often as possible up until the pandemic, walking, listening to the stories from people I met and taking an increasing number of plant photographs. I did find Edmondston’s chickweed, known by my boys as ‘THE plant’ by then. In 2022, after a very contemplative long walk around North Ronaldsay, Orkney, I made the big decision to approach the Institute for Northern Studies at the University of the Highlands and Islands, collating my notes on the historical reading that I was doing in my ‘spare’ time into an idea for postgraduate study as a mature (possibly even ‘vintage’) student. It was a huge leap of faith, but I wanted to study more this more than anything else and my boys, now students themselves, were fully supportive of this big family change even proof-reading my application.
A PhD, Plants, and ‘Precious Persistence’
Returning to here and now, I’ve just completed the first of two SGSAH Engagement Award funded visits to Shetland planned for early this year. My project, funded overall by a SGSAH Collaborative Doctoral Award with the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, seeks to understand how historical writings about Shetland wild plants are shaping our modern understanding of rare plant ecology and how we experience rare plants today.
My research involves collecting information on Shetland wild plants from a variety of sources including books, archives, botanical databases, herbaria, and the words of stakeholders and community members to explore the changing relationships between people and nature. We are interested in how this informs conservation activities and how we feel about rare and vulnerable plant species, especially in the face of climate change (and I’m learning there are other urgent concerns too).
What did the Engagement Award funding enable me to do? The primary purpose of my visit was to raise awareness of our ‘Precious Persistence’ project, invite community input and interview local naturalists and historians. I also used the opportunity to photograph or film at differing plant habitats in Shetland, with my trusty Rare Plants of Shetland book as a guide, relating this to my increasing knowledge of early records of Shetland wild plants such as the enchantingly list of The Shetland Vegetables in the 1769 James Robertson manuscript that I visited in the Signet Library, Edinburgh.
Unfortunately, my primary supervisor, Professor Donna Heddle, couldn’t join me in Shetland as her ferry was cancelled. However, she joined me online for an interview with BBC Shetland broadcast in an episode of Beyond the Briggistanes, a series exploring Shetland’s natural heritage, environment and outdoors. We are inviting people to send in their stories about their experience of Shetland plants, especially rare plants, and this was a great chance to talk in more depth about our project. An article on our project was published in The Shetland Times and other local media also helpfully put out the news that we would like stories. I have since been contacted with some fascinating insights but I’m keen to hear more!
Interview Insights
During my visit, I interviewed Brian Smith (archivist at Shetland Museum and Archives), Rory Tallack (Natural Heritage Team Leader, Shetland Amenity Trust), Jonathan Swale (NatureScot), Nathalie Pion and Gareth Powell (Species on the Edge, Shetland) and Jon Dunn (nature writer and Shetland vice-county recorder for the BSBI).
We talked about roles and responsibilities connected to Shetland’s natural environment and heritage, where and how plants are recorded, how records can be accessed, records holding particular scientific and cultural value, and gaps in the records. We delved into the history of plants and plant recording looking at examples of some better-known species (such as Edmondston’s chickweed, oysterplant and hawkweeds) and lesser-known species of particular interest to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s conservation genetics programme (including wild apples, montane willows, and seagrass). I heard who has made significant contributions towards recording and sharing information about Shetland plants past and present and have further suggestions to follow up with people and in the local archives.
The range, depth, and sensitivity of responses, and the thoughts and feelings articulated about the threats to Shetland plants, and the changes to plant communities over time, have been transformative for my thinking. Even the varying definitions of ‘historical’ when applied to plant recording in Shetland has been fascinating, exploring the specifics of place in terms of time, people, and plants.
Over the week, I visited plant habitats from Sumburgh, via the voes of Weisdale, Whiteness and Bixter, to the strandline and grassland of Breckon in Yell, and on to the serpentine scree of the Keen of Hamar in Unst. Having heard first hand so much about the threats to wild plants caused by sheep grazing, I ventured to Ronas Voe with my binoculars to see for myself how sheep can negotiate the steep, craggy sides of Ronas Hill, the tallest hill in Shetland.
Thank you to everyone who so generously gave of their time and knowledge and shared wild plant stories during this Shetland trip. The photos here are from Dr Willie Angus who kindly shared his wonderful collection of Shetland wild plants photos with us in response to our call for stories. I’m looking forward to learning and hearing more stories on the next one.
Bibliography:
Edmondston, Mrs L. (1868) The Young Shetlander, or, Shadow over the Sunshine. Being Life and Letters of Thomas Edmondston. Edinburgh: Mould and Tod [find an archived copy at The young Shetlander (archive.org)]
Scott, W., Harvey, P., Riddington, R. and Fisher, M. (2002) Rare plants of Shetland. Shetland: Shetland Amenity Trust.
Robertson, J. (1769) The Flora and Fauna of Shetland. Manuscript held in The Signet Library, Edinburgh.
Rebecca Cornwell is a first-year PhD researcher at the University of the Highlands and Islands. In collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, her SGSAH funded research focuses on Shetland botanical writing and what it reveals about our modern and historical relationship with rare plants. You can find out more about her Precious Persistence Project here, and keep up to date with her research and visits to Shetland on X (Twitter) @PlantLegacyScot.
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