Formerly run as a traditional sporting estate, it had been depleted of much of its natural goodness over the centuries.
Wild animals that once roamed here, such as wolves, wild cats, bears, boar and lynx, had been wiped out and vast tracts of forest torn down.
This area was once dominated by ancient Caledonian pine forest, but when landowners turned Scotland into sheep farms during the Highland Clearances, crofters were driven out and forests were chopped down for timber. Large predators were hunted to extinction.
The barren, bare, hills some view as ‘natural’ are the result of man’s meddling. It’s a man-made landscape; we destroyed the natural landscape.
Deer – which brought in money – were encouraged to multiply in huge numbers, but too many means forests can’t regenerate because they eat seedlings and kill off older trees by eating the bark.
Almost one million trees have been planted so far, there’s a wild cat breeding programme underway, and the reserve teems with wildlife – mountain hares, black grouse, pine martens, red squirrels, trout, otters, ring ouzels, ospreys, peregrine falcons abound, and to my delight, I spot a golden eagle.
We shot the last wolf in Scotland in 1743. They’ve spread through Europe and it’s our duty to bring them back.