The Carrifran Wildwood is a project by the Borders Forest Trust (BFT) to re-establish native woodland and the associated ecology within Carrifran, a

glen A glen is a valley, typically one that is long and bounded by gently sloped concave sides, unlike a ravine, which is deep and bounded by steep slopes. Whittow defines it as a "Scottish term for a deep valley in the Highlands" that is "narrower ...

NE of

Moffat Moffat ( gd, Mofad) is a burgh and parish in Dumfriesshire, now part of the Dumfries and Galloway local authority area in Scotland. It lies on the River Annan, with a population of around 2,500. It was a centre of the wool trade and a spa town. ...

in the

Moffat Hills The Moffat Hills are a range of hills in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. They form a roughly triangular shape with a west facing side, a north facing side, and a south-east facing side. It is 17 kilometres from east to west across this triangle ...

, part of the

Southern Uplands The Southern Uplands ( gd, Na Monaidhean a Deas) are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas (the other two being the Central Lowlands and the Grampian Mountains and the Highlands, as illustrated ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

History

The project was initially conceived in 1993 by members of the

Peeblesshire Peeblesshire ( gd, Siorrachd nam Pùballan), the County of Peebles or Tweeddale is a historic county of Scotland. Its county town is Peebles, and it borders Midlothian to the north, Selkirkshire to the east, Dumfriesshire to the south, and Lan ...

Environmental Concern group, aiming to restore a whole

catchment area In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

to a pre-agricultural standard. 1995 saw the formation of the Wildwood Group who then formed the BFT the following year in 1996. No public money was used in the purchase of the 1500 acres, totalling nearly £400,000; instead all funds were donated by private individuals and charitable trusts. The first trees were planted on 1 January 2000, the same day that the land was officially acquired. Over 500,000 trees and shrubs were strategically planted according to the management plan in the first 10 years, the majority by annual contractors. Several thousand trees are still planted annually by BFT work party volunteers, primarily around the upper rim of the glen. Work now focuses primarily on the adjacent 'Corehead and Devil's Beef Tub' and 'Talla and Gameshope' areas, acquired in 2009 and 2013 respectively. Together, these three areas in the Moffat Hills are known as 'The Wild Heart of Southern Scotland'.

Outcomes

Most of the planting in the glen is now finished and the woodland will take many years to fully establish. Despite this a number of changes have already been seen: ''Foxes and badgers are now common and otters, stoats and weasels are also present. Kestrels, buzzards, peregrines and ravens are regularly seen (as previously) and there are occasional records of short-eared, long-eared and barn owls. There are large increases in willow warblers and chaffinches, and many other woodland and scrub species such as blackcap, long-tailed tit, siskin, lesser redpoll, reed bunting and tree pipit are gradually establishing themselves. Ring ouzels are variable in occurrence but black grouse have maintained a good population, recently with eight regularly displaying males''.

Etymology

'Carrifran' is thought to at least be

Cumbric Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...

in the final syllable, likely denoting a

raven A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...

; nearby features support this. With 'caer' translating to

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

, 'Caer-y-fran' is frequently suggested, translating to 'Fort of the Raven'.

Other information

The book, ''The Carrifran Wildwood Story: Ecological Restoration from the Grass Roots'', written by Myrtle and Philip Ashmole, who were central in the wildwood's development, was published in 2009 and details the history of the project from its inception to future outlook. The 'Survivor Rowan', a remnant ''

Sorbus aucuparia ''Sorbus aucuparia'', commonly called rowan (UK: /ˈrəʊən/, US: /ˈroʊən/) and mountain-ash, is a species of deciduous tree or shrub in the rose family. It is a highly variable species, and botanists have used different Circumscription (taxo ...

'' tree, one of the few remaining trees in the glen prior to restoration, was voted Scotland's Tree of the Year in 2020, an award given to exceptional trees nominated by the public. It competed as a finalist in the 'European Tree of the Year' competition for 2021, placing 11th.

References

{{improve categories, date=January 2021 Glens of Scotland Southern Uplands Rewilding in the United Kingdom