The first moorlands in Britain date back to at least 8 000 years ago when fire was used by Middle Stone-Age hunters. Fire was used to flush animals from wooded areas, and onto the spears of waiting hunters.

Fire was also used to create clearings in woodland so that deer and other animals could graze in higher numbers where the hunters knew they would be.

Britain has most of Europe’s moorland and nearly all of its heather moorland!

12% of Scotland is covered by moorland, especially in the uplands and islands.

In the Cairngorms National Park, 41% of the landscape is dominated by heather moorland - a Cinderella habitat often overlooked as the background in which other, more interesting habitats occur.

Moorland would revert to woodland if it was not burnt or grazed regularly.

      "12% of Scotland
               is moorland..."

Fire maintains the open character of moorland and is used to create a mosaic of different aged stands of heather.

Tall, unburnt heather provides cover for red grouse and shorter, recently burnt stands provide fresh growth for the adult grouse to feed upon.

This management results in the patchwork that you can see as you look across moorland.

The winter limits the numbers of grouse on a moor because this lean period will permit the survival of only so many birds. Moorland managers aim to shoot only the surplus grouse that would die naturally, over the winter period, in order to maintain good stocks of grouse into the future.

Land managed for grouse shooting supports higher densities of notable bird species such as golden plover, lapwing and curlew than comparable habitat managed purely for grazing.

However, the densities of more common species such as meadow pipit, skylark and winchat can be lower.

The economics of land ownership have led to an increase in sheep numbers on moorland since the 1950s. Red deer numbers have increased in this time too.

Unfortunately this increase in the numbers of grazers reduces the ability of the heather to regenerate and this results in the replacement of heather moor by species-poor grassland.

The management of moorland for both shooting and farming interests is the ideal for moorland plant diversity, as long as the grazing density is low and burning takes place in small patches every 7-15 years.

  "Red Deer Numbers
          have Increased..."

This delicate balance is what we are trying to achieve at the two demonstration sites managed by the Cairngorms Moorland Project.

Records reveal that the demonstration moor at Blairfindy once produced up to 800 grouse per year.

By the 1980s, numbers had declined and between 1985 and 1995, the annual bag was steady at between 50-60 grouse. In 2000, only 15 grouse were shot and all driven shooting was suspended in 2001.

The decline in grouse numbers has resulted in the loss of moorland to other activities.

  "The future of this
    habitat is threatened..."

This is because grouse moors typically run at a loss and the owner will only accept this economic loss if there are sufficient grouse to provide good sport.

Unfortunately, the future of this internationally rare habitat is threatened by the low numbers of grouse that provide the income to support it's management..