Glen Affric

On September 14th this year it was the 25th anniversary of the completion of the first major project for Trees for Life – the protection of the 50 hectare fenced exclosure at Coille Ruigh na Cuileige in Glen Affric. A quarter of a century after the then well-known botanist David Bellamy closed the gate on the exclosure, making it a deer-free zone in an event that gained us considerable media publicity at the time, I went out to the site to see the results that have been achieved since then. [Read more…] about 25 years of regeneration at Coille Ruigh na Cuileige

On the morning of the last of the three days I spent on the West Affric Estate in August, I took a different route to my four colleagues. They were crossing the Affric River to look at a new planting site on land managed by Forestry Commission Scotland, which is planned to extend the native woodland southwards, along the east side of the Allt a’ Chomhlain watercourse. While they did that, I took the opportunity to go west from the Alltbeithe Youth Hostel, where we were staying, to look at a couple of small areas on West Affric that I’ve been photographing for many years. [Read more…] about An oasis of life in a depleted landscape

In May 2004, during a visit to the National Trust for Scotland’s (NTS’s) West Affric Estate, which encompasses the headwaters of the Affric River watershed, I had a remarkable and memorable experience. While checking up on some small-scale stock fenced exclosures that our volunteers had erected around some tiny overgrazed eared willow (Salix aurita) seedlings beside the Affric River in 1997, I found several bluebell plants (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) in full bloom in one of them. [Read more…] about The devastating damage that deer can do, part 1

On 28th June I spent the day in Glen Affric, mainly photographing insects in the vicinity of Badger Falls and Dog Falls. There’s a good range of tree species there, including oak (Quercus petraea), hazel (Corylus avellana) and aspen (Populus tremula), as well as the more common trees such as Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), downy birch (Betula pubescens) and rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), and in the summer it’s one of the best places in the glen to encounter a diverse range of insects that live on trees. [Read more…] about A remarkably creative weevil

Spring has been really late in northern Scotland this year and by the end of April most of the trees were still leafless. In most years, the birches, rowans and other trees generally get their new leaves in the second half of April, but the cold spring we’ve had in 2015 has delayed everything. It was only in the early part of May therefore that the new leaves finally started opening on the trees, and when I went to Glen Affric on the 10th of May, the forest was radiant with the vibrant, bright green flush of the fresh leaves. [Read more…] about The return of the leaves

On the 11th and 12th of December the first substantial snow of the winter this year fell in the Highlands. November had been a remarkably mild month, and this continued into the early part of December, so the change in the weather was quite dramatic. Because of Scotland’s maritime climate, snow often doesn’t last for long, and our frequent winds can remove it from the trees within hours, so I knew I had to seize the moment, so to speak. Thus, to take advantage of the pristine white conditions, I headed out to Glen Affric the next day, on Saturday the 13th. 
[Read more…] about The first snow of winter