Wild Galloway

Thoughtful and reflective, full of the life-affirming pleasures of time spent in nature An introduction to Galloway's habitats and their uniquely varied wildlife Conveys the joy of getting to know a place intimately by exploring it on foot

Ian Carter has always loved wildness and living in places where wildlife takes centre stage. His new home is tucked away between the high, heather-clad hills of Bengairn and the shining, silver Solway with its merse, mudflats and spectacular cliffs. Guarding the bay is whale-backed Hestan Island with its raucous seabird colonies. Here, once the tide moves back in across the causeway, there is only wildlife for company.

Sights and sounds in the glen are dominated by the more-than-human world. Red squirrels peer in through the windows, pine martens patrol the woods and on a good day a golden eagle will cruise overhead, helping to complete the place. Pink-feet and barnacle geese swirl above the autumn fields and thousands of common scoter, one of the Solway's special birds, dot the murky offshore waters.

There is something special about this place. It encompasses the full range of Galloway's wildlife habitats. Within walking distance of home there are moors, plantations, flower-rich meadows, fragments of native woodland, and a little, stony burn that rushes down through the farms to the Solway: this glen is wild Galloway in miniature.Ian's book is, at once, a portrait of a singular patch of ground, and an introduction to Galloway's wild places and the wildlife that lives there. .