Linn Botanic Gardens: New owner's mission to preserve legacy of tragic botanist

A botanic gardens curated by a plantsman who tragically lost his life in Vietnam is to be brought back to its former glory under new owners.

Botanist Jamie Taggart, who along with his father Jim helped create the Linn Botanic Gardens on the Rosneath Peninsula in Argyll and Bute, failed to return from a plant-hunting expedition in November 2013.

After the passing of Jim, a celebrated climate activist, aged 84 in 2019, the much-loved garden fell into disrepair and was sold and bought many times.

But in 2021, Matthew Young and his family made the choice to buy the house and gardens – and help keep the father-and-son duo’s legacy alive.

The former record label manager admits he was little more than an amateur gardener four years ago when he embarked on this mammoth project.

“Every time you cut back a big thicket, it turns out there are two or three things buried underneath it,” Matthew said.

“Most of the time, we’ve been lucky enough to get in there and save plants and move them to where they can thrive on their own.”

Jamie Taggart disappeared on a plant-hunting trip in 2013 STV News

Botanist Jim Taggart opened the garden in 1971 STV News

Linn was once one of the only privately owned gardens to be accredited as a botanical garden.

Jim purchased the Victorian villa and its grounds in 1971, now home to almost 4,000 species of plants from around the world.

Along with the scale of the site, its geography, winding steeply up a bank, with a natural burn running through it, a waterfall and a cliff face has added extra challenges.

Matthew moves from bed to bed and along the many garden paths, eagerly pointing out its many curiosities and calling out Latin names with an approaching encyclopaedic knowledge.

“The garden hasn’t really been that well maintained for about ten years so obviously the ones that grow the fastest have overwhelmed everything else,” he explains.

Matthew points to a shear wall around six metres high.

“This one spot here, by the cliff, is about two or three degrees warmer by the end of the day than anywhere else in the garden.

“It’s a strange spot, but it’s perfect for what’s already here, and it might work for some others.”

Matthew inspects plants in the garden STV News

The Taggart family had made the garden their life’s work – something Matthew said he was very conscious of when he began renovations.

“It’s not just that the garden itself was really important to people, but Jim and Jamie were so much a part of that,” he said.

“When I first came in here, I was nervous that people would see me as treading on their legacy, but everyone has been really positive and really encouraging and really appreciative of everything we’ve done.”

Matthew and his team accept they have a way to go before the project will be completed.