ACTIVE OUTDOORS: Exploring the forest paths from the new Dundreggan Rewilding Centre
Trees have always held a bit of a fascination for me, from walking through remnants of ancient fragments of forest in the Highlands to planting bare-root saplings and watching them grow into mature specimens.
Close to where I live there are oaks that must be at least 150 years old – all, as the saying points out, borne from a tiny acorn. We take all that for granted every day but nature’s ability to spread and transcend the generations is constantly impressive, however much we, as a species, learn about it.
There are still aspects of forests and their interconnectedness that we are only just starting to understand now. That amazes me! Despite the knowledge we have gained over centuries, a seemingly simple part of nature like a forest holds secrets still.
Yet our ancient forests in the Highlands connect us to the past – through the Gaelic names of places that we see on maps and via them to the people who once called this land home.
The new Dundreggan Rewilding Centre, which opened to the public on Saturday, aims to showcase the importance of connecting with nature and the heritage of the Highlands. We headed down there to explore some of the new trails that have been developed and to see what the centre has to offer.
With the playpark not yet ready to use, we were worried the youngest of our children would be going wild in a different way, but thankfully he found plenty to entertain himself – from the interactive displays within the centre and the nature-based face painting to the walks themselves.
The trails are open 24 hours a day and showcase the various habitats which would once have been widespread across much of the region – woodland, wetland and open space. There are magnificent trees, including birch, juniper, Scots pine and oak, and there was birdlife and more in abundance during our visit.
We had wandered some of the paths here before the new centre was developed, but they have been transformed – with an all-abilities route, a circuit on a well-made path with some steep climbs, and a couple of longer routes that head onto rougher ground to explore the rewilding in action as well as some of the human heritage in the glen.
Much to the children’s delight, of course I told them we were going on one of the longer routes! Matthew had decided in advance that the walk was going to be “boring” – but he admitted to me that evening that he had actually enjoyed that part. He said it was fun exploring between the “spiky plants” and seeing the amazing views.
In fact, he was quick to run and tell me when there was a view of a mountain. And as we climbed into more open space above the forest, there were some beautiful views – helped by the magnificent blue skies that lit up the forest in the perfect light. They couldn’t have asked for better for the grand opening.
Trees For Life, the charity which owns the Dundreggan estate, began in 1993 and has been the landlord here since 2008. But its rewilding mission is not just about one estate – a new project aims to connect several areas to give nature the chance to thrive and grow between Loch Ness and the west coast at Kintail and Knoydart.
A leaflet available at the centre outlines the four main walking routes, all of which start at the centre. We followed the pine path – Ceum a’ Ghuithais – past the tree nursery, where 80-100,000 young trees including willow, aspen and dwarf birch are grown each year.
The obvious path then climbs and takes a sharp right-hand bend. Our plan had been to follow the green markers of the pine path, but we overshot the higher turn-off and nearly ended back at the centre, before retracing our steps to the junction.
The route leaves the obvious path to meander upwards through a beautiful birch wood, with waymarkers keeping you on track along the vague path that has been trodden rather than created through the trees.
Paths like this are certainly more interesting for the young ones to explore and we made our way between the spiky juniper bushes and over boggy patches, through heather and across a few burns – with only a few wet feet!
A stunning gorge is passed high up close to the remains of some old shielings, then the route joins the “heather path” as it follows a fine ridge above a burn through some regenerating areas of the forest. After a final burn crossing, both routes reach the manicured path which you can take either way to return to the centre.
There is much more for us to explore here and more for me to learn about the heritage of the places in the area. The rewilding journey at Dundreggan may only just have begun but judging by its popularity – both for wildlife and for people – it seems to be treading in the right direction.
For more information on the new rewilding centre, see https://visitdundreggan.co.uk
Route details
Dundreggan pine path
Distance 2.5 miles / 4km
Terrain All-abilities paths with steep slopes, then vague but waymarked path through heather moors with a couple of burn crossings
Start/finish Dundreggan Rewilding Centre, off A887 eight miles west of Invermoriston
Map OS Landranger 34; OS Explorer 415
Taking to the trails on a visit to the new Dundreggan Rewilding Centre which opened near Invermoriston last weekend