Should the royals rewild their land?
There is a unique beauty in the moorland of the eastern Highlands. Great, bare rounded hills swell up, the dark ground brightened by the purple of flowering heather. Queen Elizabeth II’s Balmoral Estate in Aberdeenshire is at the heart of this landscape, rising up to the craggy 1,155m Lochnagar.
Walking these hills, you smell the essence of our uplands – peat, heather, a hint of charcoal – carried on a brisk south-westerly breeze, clouds sailing by in a wide sky. But if the Wild Card campaign group – backed by celebrity naturalist Chris Packham – has its way, this landscape will change beyond recognition. Caledonian pine and birch will spread high up the hillsides, montane scrub will overtake much of the heather, and bare peat will be covered in vegetation.
The 20,600-hectare Balmoral Estate is the prime target of those trying to persuade the Royal Family to rewild its land. It’s the largest single estate owned by the family, bought by Queen Victoria in
