Highlands Rewilding

I've had an exceptional day with a three hour guided tour of parts of the Bunloit Estate. Our guide was head ranger Scott who is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his work. You can read about Bunloit here. Briefly, it is a rewilding project which aims to recreate the landscape as it was before huge plantations of sitka spruce and uncontrolled numbers of deer took over and strangled the ecosystem. It's part of a much bigger picture to create a sympathetic corridor which will allow  animals, birds and insects to move around. It also intends to create employment and housing for this part of the Highlands. There was so much to take in and I will be processing this visit and all I Iearned for a long time. Thank you Scott. You were a terrific guide.

I really struggled with what to blip. In the end I went for the magnificent Scots Pines in the snow with the blue sky above. We could not have been more fortunate with the weather. I made a collage of some other notables - some of the gorgeous lichen, the view down Loch Ness, a sika deer skull and a shelter made from a felled spruce.  I know my photos haven't done full justice to what was memorable morning.

After we left Bunloit we went into Drumnadrochit for late lunch. We are very fond of Drum despite its emphasis on Nessie. After she left school our daughter lived and studied in Drum at the wonderful Borlum Farm, then the centre for Highland Riding for the Disabled Group. It was a very good 4.5 years and Drum holds many happy memories for us.

Back at base now and watching the sun on the canal. It isn't warm but it is a great view.