In spite of the Stace classification above this particular plant must really be a garden escape as the native colony is established only on the West coast of Ireland not the East. From the East it might conceivably have travelled across the Irish Sea to the North Lancashire coast but surely not from the West.

In any case the vernacular name "Irish Heath" suggests that eventually I must take a trip to Galway or Mayo in the Spring to see the real thing. This particular plant had certainly escaped to a good and "acceptable" position being high on a rocky crag facing the sea and was difficult to get a camera close to the main plant.

This plant has one or two sites only on the mainland of Britain and is confined to western Ireland as a native.

Arnside Promenade coast, 15th April 2006

Added on 20th April 2006, updated 3rd January 2009, updated 29th March 2010