Family forest walk’s a natural way to relax

The National Trust for Scotland protects many of the country’s most-loved places

Something magical happens when we walk through an ancient woodland.

Breathing fresh, clean air, tuning into the sounds of nature, giving our body and soul the space to recharge.

With almost 100 important sites in their care, The National Trust for Scotland is full of favourite places, including wonderful woodlands.

Studies have demonstrated the benefits of “forest bathing” and woods are perfect places for kids to exercise their imagination.

So make a plan today to take a walk in the woods as soon as you can.

Here are some of the Trust’s most important woodlands to give you inspiration.

Discover Scotland’s very own rainforests at Balmacara, Wester Ross. This is a special kind of woodland, containing trees dripping with lichens and rocks clad with abundant mosses.

There are some wonderful examples of this unique habitat thriving at Balmacara, where oak and birch have a magical feel, with thick carpets of mosses, colourful fungi and glorious ferns.

But Scotland’s rainforest is in trouble with as little as 30,000 hectares remaining – a mere two per cent of our woodland cover.

The National Trust for Scotland is a member of the Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest, a voluntary partnership of 20 organisations with a shared vision to see Scotland’s rainforest thrive once again.

In Aberdeenshire, the Old Wood of Drum dates back to the 12th century and once served as a royal hunting forest.

The wood provided an essential supply of oak, and many fine ships and buildings were built from oak trees cut from Drum Estate.

Today, the woodland provides a safe haven for wildlife, including red squirrels, bats, badgers, beetles, and a diverse variety of birds.

Relax in the shade of Drum’s expansive arboretum and pinetum, which took root in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Here, long-lived Monterey pines and giant redwoods from California intermingle with aged umbrella pines and cedars from Japan and majestic silver firs from central Europe.

Perthshire is known as ‘Big Tree Country’ due, in part, to the great seed collector David Douglas, who was born in Scone and then travelled the world in the 1800s finding new tree species to introduce to Scotland – including his namesake, the Douglas fir.

The Hermitage is one of the best places to see these magnificent Douglas fir trees.

When you’re walking through the Hermitage, look out for changes in the woodland cover, where natural regeneration of native trees such as oak, hazel and birch have gained superiority, creating a mosaic of deciduous and evergreen trees.

On the Mar Lodge Estate, Aberdeenshire, work to restore the Caledonian Pine habitat has been under way for 25 years, and they’re starting to see results.

Once at the centre of the Great Wood of Caledon, when the Trust took over it could have been described as a desert.

But pioneering work to limit overgrazing by deer and to allow the woodland to regenerate means the loss of the ancient woodland has been halted and new life is springing up all over the estate.

On the Threave Estate in Dumfriesshire, the Trust has just started work to restore the woodland and wetlands.

Their project will see the estate become an established centre of excellence in landscape restoration, safeguarding our treasured outdoor spaces for generations to come.

FIND OUT MORE AND SIGN UP AT NTS.ORG.UK

WONDERFULTHE woodlands looked after by the NTS