Fernking Woods

A small rewilding project

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Lizards coming out of the stumps looking for the spring sunshine.

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The frogs were busy when we visited in mid March, unfortunately some pools they had laid spawn in had already dried up. We plan to create some more permanent pools, ponds and scrapes in the marshy areas later this year.

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Spawn.

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A long weekend in December getting a few more hazel saplings in the ground after collecting more tree guards and stakes. Also a bunch of willow cuttings of various varieties in the marsh area down near the burn.

The final visit of the year. Though there were a few planned jobs we didn't manage this year, we did get all the trees in that we had hoped to. Still many more to go over the next few planting seasons though!

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A productive week in late November - the first serious tree planting session. We battled all different types of weather but with help from family and friends we managed to get around 1600 saplings in - sweet chestnut, hazel, alder and willow.

These trees will be coppiced in the years to come to provide fuel as well as craft and building materials.

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A small gully and burn forms one of the property boundaries. It was one of the driest summers on record so it was good to see that the flow continued all year.

It's a small rainforest of gnarly old willows - cracked and deformed -clothed in moss, lichen and liverworts.

This small strip is the only section that feels like longstanding, established woodland and it has an atmosphere that hopefully will be recreated elsewhere on the land in years to come.

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Despite most of the land being a clearfell sitka spruce plantation it was reassuring to see a good quantity and variety fungi across the area. Lifting some of the brash it was evident that large networks of mycelium were doing an effective job of breaking it all down.

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Now I had a tractor I needed a small shed to keep the worst of the winter weather off it. Didn't have much time but whipped this up over a couple of days reusing old materials and a few small sitka spruce that were due to be felled at some point anyway as they're non-native and invasive.

I don't have a trailer but my neighbour lent me his for the trip to the old farmstead to collect the tin. I'll likely collect some more to clad the sides when I get the chance.

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First flush of green on some of the saplings we planted out at the end of November 2024. These were a collection of oaks, hazel, chestnut and walnut that we had grown and brought along for a couple years in our garden.

April 2025

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The first priority for obvious reasons was to build a compost toilet. Built out of round wood found on the land and reclaimed timber from various sources. The only cost was for nails, screws and the second hand windows, about £40 in all. The roof tin and some of the cladding was donated by the neighbour.

Situated on a knoll surrounded by Scots pines, it's almost like a bird hide.

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A few photos showing the general condition of the land at the beginning of the project.

The sitka crop was felled in summer 2023, with the brash being left in regularly spaced strips, so fairly easy ground beneath the foot across the site other than area of windfall which is now a tangle of upturned stumps and root plates.

Lots of small 2m lengths of tree tops left over which we've started stacking to dry for firewood and small building projects.

January 2025

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The start of a long held dream - to rewild a small part of Scotland.

11.66 Hectares - 9.55ha of clear felled sitka & 2.11 of rough heather with various self seeded species.