108. Breach Pine

A burgeoning pine tree competes for your attention with Inverness Castle.

Perched on a low hill, Inverness Castle dominates the city’s skyline; it is a discordant, romantic mashup of Victorian red-sandstone towers, walls and turrets. The buildings are framed by trees, and most noticeable among them is a deep green, multi-trunked Austrian pine that has grown taller than the battlements, offering rather too easy access for would-be attackers.

Species details

Austrian pine
Pinus nigra

Where to find it 

Inverness Castle, Inverness IV2 3EG
///dame.drama.brass | 57.476189, -4.2261580

Austrian pine notes

Pinus nigra is a southern European species, with several subspecies. Their combined natural range encompasses Asia Minor, Crimea, Southern Italy, Corsica and Central Europe north to Austria and west to southern France. Collectively they may be called the black pines, but the Austrian and Corsican subspecies are frequent, and their names well-known throughout Britain and Irealand. Corsican pines tend to have single tall trunks, while Austrians are often multi-trunked. Apart from Scots pines – distinguished by their orange bark in higher branches – black pine species are the most widely encountered pines. 

Other pines

95. Tee Pine

86. Pesto Pine

72. Bryn Tyrch Pine

53. Astley Ainslie Pine

41. Portarlington Pine