Gamekeepers praised after joint effort halts Pentlands wildfire 

Joint response contains Pentland Hills wildfire

Teams of gamekeepers and farmers helped prevent a rapidly spreading wildfire in the Pentland Hills Regional Park, near Edinburgh, from engulfing hundreds of hectares of moorland last month, in a joint effort praised by landowners, the fire service and rural organisations.

The blaze broke out at Eastside Farm on 25 May and was attended by six Scottish Fire and Rescue Service appliances, with crews remaining on scene for around six hours. Alongside the emergency response, 16 gamekeepers and 14 farmers armed with fogging units, all-terrain vehicles and a tractor worked across steep terrain to bring the fire under control, drawing support from 10 estates, farms and rural businesses across the Pentlands and beyond.

.

Rapid intervention limits damage

Local estimates put the area affected at around 17 hectares, roughly equivalent to 24 football pitches. Without rapid intervention, there was a credible risk of the fire spreading across up to 550 hectares, potentially taking in Black Hill and the main Pentland ridge, according to Scottish Land & Estates (SLE). Attending gamekeeper Andy Buchan said the consequences could have been severe. “It was a big fire and if the local estates hadn’t turned up with their equipment, the fire might have just run on,” he said. “The area is known as Black Hill and if the wind direction had changed it would have taken the whole hill out.”

Nesting birds were among those to suffer, with ground-nesting species losing eggs and young as the fire moved across the heather. “It was such a shame to see the cost to wildlife when we looked back over the ground,” Mr Buchan added.

Jenny Cowan of Eastside Farm said the farming and gamekeeping communities involved in the response “were exceptional, utterly selfless and brave in what was a frightening and fast-moving situation”. She added: “I don’t use the term hero lightly, but those involved in the response effort were just that.”

.

Second wildfire tackled in the Cairngorms

A second wildfire was dealt with the following day near Lochan Mor in the Cairngorms National Park, where Rothiemurchus Estate staff, the fire service and gamekeepers from Kinveachy Estate extinguished the flames before they could spread into the wider forest.

SLE, whose director of moorland and strategic projects Ross Ewing attended the Pentland Hills incident, said previous muirburn on the farm had proved instrumental in containing the fire. “The areas that had been burned previously helped land managers gain access, create firebreaks and slow the fire’s progress,” he said. Mr Ewing also called for serious consideration of whether fire management byelaw powers, similar to those already in place in the Cairngorms, where fires and barbecues are prohibited, should be made urgently available in the Pentlands.

The Scottish Gamekeepers Association said its members would have an increasing role to play as fire seasons in Scotland became longer and more severe. “We are proud of what our members do, using their skills and knowledge to help where they can,” said chairman Alex Hogg MBE.

.

Growing concern over wildfire preparedness

The incidents came against a backdrop of heightened concern about wildfire preparedness across the UK. SLE has submitted evidence to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee calling for a coherent fire management strategy, following the classification of last year’s Carrbridge and Dava wildfires in Strathspey as the UK’s first “megafire”. That event burned an estimated 29,225 acres, roughly equivalent to a typical year’s total wildfire losses across the whole country.