Wild Galloway: From the hilltops to the Solway, a portrait of a glen

This is a personal, reflective account of Galloway’s wildlife based on life in a uniquely varied and diverse glen, tucked away between high, heather-clad hills and the shore of the Solway. It includes the author’s reflections on the importance of wild places, based on a lifetime of experience as a naturalist and conservationist. Ian Carter expresses a desire for more wildness, and living in a place with few people allows wildlife to take on greater significance. Sights and sounds are dominated by things from the wider natural world and connections deepen. In his home in the wilds of Galloway, red squirrels peer in through the windows, pine martens patrol the local woods and on a good day a golden eagle will cruise overhead, helping to complete the place. It was the beginning of a love affair with the wildlife of this small glen between the hills and the shining, silver Solway. Wild Galloway is a portrait of a singular patch of ground and an introduction to the wildlife of Galloway more broadly. The glen supports a little of each of Galloway’s main habitats – there are the high tops of Bengairn and Screel surrounded by moorland and bog, a hideout for the handful of red grouse that cling to these hills. Ancient ash and hazel woods flank the lower pastures, and a burn with its otters and brown trout rushes through them towards the sea. And where the glen meets the Solway there is merse and mudflats, wild geese tumble from the sky, and waders of all kinds tease invertebrates from the ooze. In spring, sheer cliffs fill with seabirds, spilling away from their ledges each time the peregrines try their luck. Whale-backed Hestan Island comes alive with nesting gulls, just as the scaup and common scoter begin to drift north. There is something very special about this place: it is wild Galloway in miniature.