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Moorlands in Scotland

 

 

(Follow the highlighted word links to find out more information)

 

 

Moorlands might look like a wilderness – especially on a wet and misty day – but look closely and you will find a lot of very rare wildlife there.

 

 

Like this Curlew -

 

Curlew

 

Moorlands are the land between the green grass fields and the high rocky mountains. The main plants that grow there are heather, grass, bracken, rushes and bilberry.

 

 

You can find lots of people using the moors – walking, farming sheep and cattle, shooting grouse and stalking deer.

 

 

Red Grouse

 

 

There are lots of reservoirs up on moors collecting water for towns and cities.

 

 

Being high up on the hill, moorlands can get very cold in the winter, and might be covered in snow for months. The weather on hills and mountains can change very quickly. From Snow to rain and high winds or even from warm sunshine to cold sleet or rain – so you must always come prepared and be properly dressed. Always take some waterproofs and boots even if it looks like a nice sunny day when you first start off. And be aware of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code !

 

 

In the summer months and especially August, the heather comes into bloom and the purple colour of the heather is a fantastic sight. It smells lovely too and the bees love heather for making honey.

 

 

The soil underneath the moors is peat. This tends to be wet and not very fertile so you cannot grow any crops here. Wet peat is unlike normal soil as it is always water logged, and trees  and other things can be preserved in tact in peat for thousand of years.

 

 

You will have heard that the earths climate is getting warmer, partly because of the carbon dioxide given off by cars and power stations. Peat on the moors can actually help stop climate change because it actually ‘locks up’ the CO2.

 

 

Over the centuries heather has been burnt every 10 years or so, which is why you often see a patchwork pattern of different colours and ages of heather. This burning process is done by gamekeepers and farmers to get rid of the old woody heather and to allow new shoots to grow. These new shoots are good for grouse and other animals to eat.

 

 

 

 

Many thousand of years ago moorlands would have been covered in trees, like Scots pine and Birch. In the Bronze Age and Iron Age the trees were gradually cleared to make grazing for farm animals, or for firewood. Even now IF there are no sheep or deer grazing on moors and IF the heather wouldn’t get burnt, trees would gradually start to grow again on the lower slopes of the moors.

 

 

Heather on moors helps lots of birds – some nest in short grass and heather so they can keep a look out for their enemies like foxes and stoats and weasels. They also like drying their feathers in the wind. Others like to nest in the longer heather to hide from their enemies and get shelter from the wind and rain.

 

 

The cold winter weather on the moors means that lots of birds like the curlew go away in July and August and spend the next few months on the coast – like having a long holiday at the seaside.

 

 

 

They come back to the moors in February and March and make their nests and rear their chicks. The best time to see moorland birds is in April, May and June.

 

 

A few birds like the red grouse stay on the moor all winter and are so tough they can even live under the snow if they have to. They are real hard little birds and will defend their territories to their death if they have to. There have been sightings of grouse even attacking car wheels on a road by a grouse believing it was still in its territory.

 

 

A grouse is also a delicious bird to eat. It is wild and has a free and happy life. So when there are years with a lot of grouse on the moor, people will organise shooting days.

 

 

Grouse can fly at speeds up to 60 – 80 miles per hour so they are very difficult to shoot.

 

 

In the last 50 years Scotland has lost a quarter  of the area of heather moorland – it has either been taken over by people planting trees or it has been grazed by too many sheep. It is therefore now even more important to look after our moorland and keep what we have got. Scotland is the only place that you find purple heather moors and is a very important habitat as it is together with the red grouse, which is only found in Great Britain, a real icon.