Bill fought from dawn to dusk but life’s work was destroyed

Deer manager Bill Muircroft saw 24 years of his life’s work go up in smoke when a wild fire swept through 3,000 acres of the 12,000 acre Altyre Estate.

It will take another 20 years to recover – and Bill admits he may not be around to see it.

The 67-year-old dad of two – who has worked the estate for a quarterof-a-century – relived the moment the blaze, which started on April 22 at Paul’s Hill wind farm on the neighbouring Ballindalloch Estate, swept through the land he nurtured.

He told The Sunday Post: “Our moor is next to the one managed by the wind farm. Part of it included 1,000 acres of a native pinewood scheme, planted to try to recreate part of the ancient Caledonian Pine Forest and to build wildlife habitats. The fire destroyed all of it.

“That is a major loss to the estate – around 350,000 trees. They were just at a nice stage, both aesthetically and ecologically and created a fantastic habitat for some rare raptors like merlin and hen harrier, and also for black grouse.

“It has been a lifetime’s work. I have nurtured, cared for and protected that pinewood for the last 24 years. It was devastated in 24 hours. There are not a lot of these native pinewood schemes in Scotland. It was special.”

Although the losses are being assessed, Mr Muircroft said: “Nesting habitat would have been destroyed. There have been nesting harriers there for the last 15 years. There were a couple of pairs in the area before the fire and there might have been two nests this year. We have at least one every year.

“I would say this is one of the healthiest areas for harriers, a schedule one bird, which means they are totally protected and share same status as an eagle and a peregrine falcon. Now we don’t have any breeding on us at all.

“We usually have a merlin nest with us every year and we have lost that too. For the habitat to get back to that stage you are talking 15 to 20 years. Harriers will only nest in rank heather – that means heather that is on the long side, about 18 to 20 inches – and heather grows very slowly.

“As soon as we knew the fire was heading this way we started getting ready to fight it. All the neighbouring estates were fighting their bit at the time. It was a coordinated effort. There were keepers coming here from 30 miles away to help. At one point, there were 70 firefighters, 30 gamekeepers and at least another 50 on standby.

“We fought it from dawn to dusk but the heat was too intense for us to get near the pinewood scheme. I saw a good part of it burning and I thought I had wasted 24 years of my life protecting it.

“I couldn’t put a monetary cost on what has been lost. It has been a big loss to the local community too. A lot of people walk and cycle that hill and everybody is devastated by the damage that has been done.

“I can’t say yet if we are going to replant. If we did I probably it would take 20 years to grow and I wouldn’t be here to see it.”