The Borders Forest Trust has received funding from the Scottish Government to restore native woodland at the Devil’s Beef Tub near Moffat. The Trust which bought the land at Corehead Farm in 2009 after a lengthy fundraising campaign, has secured almost £1million to re-forest part of the iconic landscape.
The Trust says that the hills and valleys around the famous beauty spot were once cloaked with native woodland making up the Ettrick Forest. Within this wild forest, heather moorland thrived on the higher slopes and wetlands and meadows beside the rivers. Borders Forest Trust plans to restore these habitats and create a new and diverse landscape across the Southern Uplands. The Trust hopes that native broadleaved forest will once again flourish at Corehead.
The land at Corehead Farm stretches for 640 hectares including Hart Fell and the Devil’s Beef Tub – a huge hollow scooped out of the hill where Border Reivers once hid their stolen cattle. It is also said that William Wallace gathered men here before leading his first attack on the English in 1297. The area has long been used for farming with much of it given over to sheep grazing on unimproved moorland.
The Borders Forest Trust says it hopes to use traditional agricultural practices and ecological restoration techniques to create wetlands, hay meadows and heather moorland habitats on the land of Corehead. Sheep will continue to graze the hills, but in reduced numbers in order to let semi-natural habitats re-establish. The Trust hopes to introduce native breeds of cattle for summer grazing, to help promote the growth of wildflowers and other plants.