Glen Cannich

In early January I spent a day out in Glen Cannich, and during the morning my attention was focused on the wonderful atmospheric conditions created by the mist drifting along the hillsides and over the old Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) there. I also photographed some red deer (Cervus elaphus). By lunch time however, the mist was gone and the deer had moved away so in the afternoon I began exploring the rocky knolls in the area below the Mullardoch dam. There are no trees there at all, so I don’t usually spend any time in that spot, because it’s rather bleak and desolate. [Read more…] about Misty day in Glen Cannich, part 2

For my first trip out to the Caledonian Forest in 2017 I decided to visit Glen Cannich as it had been some time since I was last there. It was another mild day in this unseasonably warm winter when I went out in early January, and I was hoping to be able to photograph some red deer (Cervus elaphus) while I was there. One of the estates in the glen feeds deer near the road in the winter, so it’s often possible to see the animals at close proximity. [Read more…] about Misty day in Glen Cannich, part 1

At the end of February I made a return visit to the area in Glen Cannich that I’d visited last December, which I wrote about in a blog back then. Because of the very short hours of daylight at that time of year, I hadn’t had the opportunity to fully explore that section of the Cannich River then. However, I’d seen enough to realise that there was a lot of interest to discover there, hence the reason for making another trip once the days were lengthening again. [Read more…] about A lichen day in Glen Cannich

In early December I decided to go to Glen Cannich for a day of photography. It was quite a while since I’d been into that glen, and as I like to vary my destinations for each trip, it seemed like a good choice for a different location to where I’d been recently. With the daylight hours being very short at this time of year, as we approach the mid-winter solstice, I opted to stay close to the road, and visit a part of the glen I’d not explored before. [Read more…] about Fungi and lichens in Glen Cannich

In early June I headed out to Glen Cannich for the day, to visit the large aspen stand I found there last year, and which I’ve blogged about before. I’d been there in May with my colleague Mick to survey the aspens and had noticed there were a lot of bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) showing their buds, so I’d estimated this would be about the right time to catch them at the peak of their flowering. [Read more…] about A bluebell day in Glen Cannich

At the beginning of March I made a trip out to Glen Cannich with Ruth May, a former Trees for Life staff member who had returned to her native Germany about 15 months previously, but was back now for a visit to Scotland again. In the last year I’ve made a couple of visits to the gorge on the River Cannich, where I discovered a large, previously unrecorded stand of aspen trees just over a year ago. I’d been there again last October to photograph the aspens in their autumn colours, but on both those occasions I’d been on the east side of the gorge. This trip therefore I was interested in exploring the west side of the gorge, where I’d seen there were some more aspen trees when I was looking across the gorge in October. [Read more…] about The other side of the Cannich River gorge

On Boxing Day I set out for Glen Cannich, where I wanted to spend the day on the south side of Loch Mullardoch – an area which has a remnant of the Caledonian Forest, but which I’ve only partially explored in the past. I had an ambitious goal for the day – to walk along the length of the Mullardoch Estate, to the East Benula South estate further west, where the native pinewood eventually peters out. I hadn’t been to that part of the pinewood before, and I wanted to see if there’s any potential for restoration work there. [Read more…] about Where the sun never shines in winter

It was the first Saturday in October when I finally had an opportunity to return to the remarkable, large aspen stand I had discovered in the gorge of the River Cannich back in January. I’d been planning to go back there some time during the summer, but I hadn’t been able to fit a visit in, so this was my last chance now, before the trees lost their leaves for the winter. As it turned out, it was good timing, because to access the site requires a long walk through dense, tall bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), which would have been very difficult in the summer – now, in early October the bracken was all collapsing, and was somewhat easier to negotiate! [Read more…] about Return to the River Cannich aspens