Rewilding in action at Tireragan which was once a rather poor hill farm. Stock removed over 20 years ago and rewilded since 1994. Absolute murder to walk through even up here on the thin soils on the granite with rank heather and some birch and willow regen.

It was an interesting contrast with Ardalanish on the other side of the fence. Since the subsidy reforms the reduction in grazing on the farm is letting the woods regenerate but the cattle are keeping the rough ground green and full of wildflowers and insects.

The difference is dramatic and the livestock on the farmed side puts a roof over the heads of a young man and his two daughters , provides top quality beef and lamb for local sales and high quality wool for tweed production. The tourist mill on the farm provides more employment.

Tireragan is rewilding it its purest form or land abandonment as it used to be known. As an experiment it has its merits but as a model of the benefits rewilding can bring it fails miserably. It has been 3 years since I walked in there as it takes that long to forget the mess.

The light handed farming on Ardalanish would be described as conservation grazing were a charity involved with a rare pony or yak replacing the highland cattle and hebridean sheep at great expense to the lottery fund and tax payer.