Baseline surveys began in spring 2020, before sheep were removed and the wildland project formally commenced. This gives us a genuine before-and-after record – something relatively rare in rewilding projects of this scale in Scotland.

Monitoring is carried out by a combination of in-house observation, local volunteers and external researchers, covering a broad range of ecological indicators:

Vegetation & botany: systematic surveys tracking the shift in plant communities as former sheep pasture transitions toward more complex, structurally diverse habitat.

Birds: regular surveys recording breeding and wintering species, with particular attention to ground-nesting birds and those associated with scrub and wetland margins.

Mammals: camera trap networks across the wildland, capturing the activity of the full mammal assemblage including beavers, deer, foxes and a range of smaller species.

Invertebrates: targeted surveys monitoring the recovery of insect communities, including pollinators and species associated with deadwood, dung and wetland habitats.

Soil: sampling to track changes in soil structure, carbon and biology as the land moves away from intensive agricultural management.

Hydrology: monitoring of water movement and retention across the wildland, including the continuing influence of beaver activity on the riparian system.

Photography & timelapse: systematic visual documentation of the landscape through all seasons, creating a long-term archive of change that complements the quantitative data.

A substantial body of data has now accumulated across these programmes. We are currently in the process of writing up and presenting findings, which will be published here as they become available. This is a living record – one that will grow and deepen as the project matures.