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The Good Woods?
Further to my post (below) about the benefits of new woodland, I visited an estate in Perthshire on Thursday where over 100 acres of a 5,000 acre moor have been planted up with a range of hardwoods, scots pines and larches. Unlike the commercial plantings in Galloway, these trees have been put in specifically for… Continue reading
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Hill Ploughing
In March, a comparatively small area of moorland near the Chayne was ploughed by the foresters, who then planted it up with sitka spruce trees. This process is probably the single most irreversibly damaging thing that you can do to a sensitive (and peat based) moor, but it is interesting to see what sort of… Continue reading
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More Phytophthora
During an aborted attempt to climb Cairnsmore of Fleet this afternoon, it became horribly apparent just how badly damaged Galloway’s larch plantations have been by the much talked of Phytophthora ramorum. Although driving rain forced us to abandon the walk in from Clatteringshaws, there were some gaps through the cloud to look north and west… Continue reading
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Hare Records
I was very interested to see some old gamebooks from a sportsman who plied his trade across Galloway between 1911 and 1937. The books are now in the possession of one of his descendents who has a farm near the Chayne, and it was fascinating to see the story of sporting life in the south… Continue reading
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Larch Disease
Interesting rumours beginning to come through of a massive cull of Galloway larch trees as a result of the major phytophthora outbreak which has taken place in the Galloway Forest Park. I posted about this a few months ago when I came across a huge area of dead larches on the Border between Galloway and… Continue reading
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The Galloway Rut
I am used to thinking of the Chayne as “hill country”, so it is often humbling to head a few miles west to take in some real wilderness. By comparison to the Rhinns of Kells or the Awful Hand, the Chayne is a short stump rising out of the moss. These massive ranges block out… Continue reading
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The Autumn Hedge
Interesting to note what an effect the changing seasons are having on the short section of hedge I put in this spring. Over the summer, the blackthorn, hawthorn and guelder rose plants have come on very nicely, and many of the rugosa roses and dog roses flowered during July and August. There are now a… Continue reading
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Emerging Heather Beetles
While it’s hard to describe an outbreak of heather beetle on your own ground as a good thing, the beetles that have destroyed an area of heather on the Chayne this year have served an important purpose by allowing me to study them at close hand. Readers of this blog will have watched the attack… Continue reading
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The Leaping Salmon
The past few days have been spent avidly watching a waterfall a few miles south of the Chayne. I went down on Thursday to look at the dippers as they dealt with the first proper water of the year, and sure enough found several bobbing birds shrieking cheerily on the black rocks, apparently undaunted by… Continue reading
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Autumn Coveys
Interesting to see that my grey partridges are getting harder and harder to hold as the first frosts come in. Some of the birds have now been out on the hill for four months since they were only a few days old, and as much as I have been able to heft them into certain… Continue reading
About
“Shout on, Morgan. You’ll be nothing tomorrow”
Swn y galon fach yn torri, 1952
Also at: https://andtheyellowale.substack.com
Bog Myrtle & Peat 