Comar Wood is 50 acres of ancient woodland that was planted with Sitka spruce and larch in the 1980s, making it a Plantation on Ancient Woodland Site (PAWS). It is found on a steep hillside just above the floodplain of the River Glass in Scotland. Jamie and I bought the land back in 2017. We were looking for a woodland that was in need of attention, somewhere we could make a difference by bringing a piece of land back to life and this seemed to fit the bill.
When we bought it, about 70 percent of the woodland contained Sitka spruce trees and small areas of larch. Sitka spruce is the conifer found in most forestry plantations in Scotland, but it is not a native species – it is actually from North America. Being ancient woodland, Comar Wood has been continuously wooded since at least 1750 and because of this it has retained many special species of plant, as well as undisturbed soils. The spruce trees had never been thinned so formed a dense stand, which has had a damaging effect on the ancient woodland by blocking out most of the light so that very few other species survive.
Fortunately, not all of the woodland was planted with spruce and there are pockets where the ancient woodland has survived. Common native tree species here include silver birch, oak, rowan, alder, aspen, bird cherry and hazel. In the areas of spruce the ground flora is either non-existent or is composed of species such as mosses and wood sorrel that are tolerant of heavy shading. In remnant areas of native woodland the ground flora is much more diverse due to the plentiful light. The species mix is quite variable suggesting subtle differences in soil fertility. In the slightly richer areas plants such as bluebell, wood anemone and dog’s mercury are found, together with bramble and honeysuckle. Heathers and blaeberry are found in areas of poorer soil. Mosses and ferns, including bracken, are found extensively.
Our management plan is to give the woodland a new lease of life by gradually thinning or removing areas of spruce, letting the light back in and establishing woodland with many different types of tree. What we plan to do is often referred to as ‘ancient woodland restoration’ but I prefer to think of it more as woodland renewal. We are not planning to revert the woodland back to a past condition but rather to allow it to develop into a diverse woodland that can be a haven for woodland flora and fauna into the future. The intention is for it to continue to be a productive woodland – producing timber, firewood, etc. People often think of woodlands as being either ‘commercial’ productive forestry or ‘amenity’ woods for wildlife and recreation, but I hope to show with Comar Wood that you can have both things at once.
This blog provides a chronicle of the work that we have undertaken in Comar Wood since 2017. After surveying and mapping the woodland I produced a management plan. The first operation, in 2018-19 was to open up access tracks at the western end of the wood. Then in 2019-21 we had a couple of years’ hiatus in woodland activities while we built a house here and had our twins!
Once we got going again, thinning of some of the spruce at the western end was undertaken, as well as removal of poorly grown spruce from a small coupe. Timber was extracted to the access tracks using a tractor and forestry winch. In late 2023 we began felling another track line to provide access further east across the hillside, with construction of the track taking place that summer. Work to extend this track is currently ongoing. In 2024-5 we also felled a 0.2 ha coupe of spruce near the eastern end of the woodland, to provide a sheltered clearing in which woodland regeneration can commence.
Further thinning of the spruce accessible from the new track will commence later in 2025, while future operations will remove more small coupes of spruce (around 0.25 ha) to create a mosaic of regeneration within the shelter of the surrounding woodland. Comar Wood is home to many species of bird and animal, small and large, including the pearl bordered fritillary butterfly, which I wrote about here. By breaking up the dense stand of spruce trees we are creating a much more diverse woodland with a range of varied, connected habitats that should allow a wider range of species to thrive here.
