Field Notes: Exploring Schiehallion
Our Digital Communications Officer Natalia Barbour shares her early impressions of Schiehallion, visited during the first few weeks of her role.
Schiehallion has always existed in the back of my mind as a mystical, mythical place - full of folklore and wildness. So, when I got the opportunity to visit it in the first few weeks of my role at the Trust, I was both excited and slightly nervous.
The mountain looms over Perthshire at 1,083 metres. From certain angles it has an almost perfect conical shape, making it look quite intimidating to climb.
Our plan this time was to explore the foot of the mountain, to better understand the challenges of managing this wild place. First off we followed the Foss Loop, a 1.5km easy access path which links three Heart of Scotland Forest Partnership properties; the John Muir Trust's East Schiehallion, Dùn Coillich owned by the Highland Perthshire Communities Land Trust, and Forestry and Land Scotland’s Foss Forest.
Tom, who manages East Schiehallion for the Trust filled us in on what's involved in caring for the site. After taking ownership in 1999, the Trust realigned the main mountain path onto a more sustainable and less intrusive line. We continue to maintain this popular path, preventing erosion and damage to surrounding limestone habitats and protecting the flora and fauna.
As we walked, I could see in the distance multiple deer fences that had been installed to reduce grazing. More deer fences are to be installed soon and the recent planting of native trees meant that biodiversity was being encouraged to thrive.
I learned that what I had previously accepted as part of the “wildness” of Schiehallion - the abundant heather and bracken - was actually a monoculture created by centuries of overgrazing from deer and sheep. I could even see parts of trees that had been bitten down by the animals, and wool caught from overeager sheep tied up in the bracken.
Despite this, I could see that Schiehallion was teeming with biodiversity potential. Flowers, insects and the new trees that had been planted inside the fence were doing well.
At this point the weather was beginning to turn on us, so waterproofs were brought out. We still weren’t quite ready to head home, so we enjoyed the last part of the walk downhill, gazing out on Highland Perthshire and taking in the views all the way back to the car park.
Find out more
- The Heart of Scotland Forest Partnership connects six areas of land (including the Trust's East Schiehallion site) to create a woodland corridor stretching across more than 3,000 hectares from the eastern flank of Schiehallion to Loch Tummel.