I’ve just come across my desk diary for 1976, a Country Gentlemen’s Association volume. Here we are in August ‘76, in the year that set new records for drought: “Staying at Derreen (in County Cork) climbed Curraghcreagh; a vertical bog” was one entry. Meanwhile, in 1976, the saplings of our future Saling Hall arboretum shrivelled and my arms grew longer carrying watering cans.
So we’re off to Ireland again.


