Carrifran Wildwood

Martha Kearney visits one of the UK’s earliest environmental restoration projects. Southern Scotland was once covered in broadleaf woodland, rich scrub, heath and bog. That was before sheep, humans and conifers took hold. Now a group of visionary volunteers are restoring that landscape in what they call the ‘wild heart of southern Scotland’. Set in a 1600 acre glacial valley in lowland Scotland, Carrifran Wildwood is the first tranche of a wider restoration area which aims to wheel back six thousand years. The idea is to recreate the primeval forest that proliferated back then. It will act as a c...