Wild Galloway

Thoughtful and reflective, full of the life-affirming pleasures of time spent in nature
An introduction to Galloway's habitats and their uniquely varied wildlife
Conveys the joy of getting to know a place intimately by exploring it on foot


Ian Carter has always loved wildness and
living in places where wildlife takes centre stage. His new home is tucked away
between the high, heather-clad hills of Bengairn and the shining, silver Solway
with its merse, mudflats and spectacular cliffs. Guarding the bay is
whale-backed Hestan Island with its raucous seabird colonies. Here, once the
tide moves back in across the causeway, there is only wildlife for company.



Sights and sounds in the glen are
dominated by the more-than-human world. Red squirrels peer in through the
windows, pine martens patrol the woods and on a good day a golden eagle will
cruise overhead, helping to complete the place. Pink-feet and barnacle geese
swirl above the autumn fields and thousands of common scoter, one of the
Solway's special birds, dot the murky offshore waters.

There is something special about this place. It encompasses the full range of Galloway's wildlife habitats. Within walking distance of home there are moors, plantations, flower-rich meadows, fragments of native woodland, and a little, stony burn that rushes down through the farms to the Solway: this glen is wild Galloway in miniature.Ian's book is, at once, a portrait of a singular patch of ground, and an introduction to Galloway's wild places and the wildlife that lives there. .