Qualla: Cannich wildfire

Cannich wildfire: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Scottish Highlands on 31 May 2023 and photographed a plume of smoke drifting east toward Loch Ness. The fire it was carrying had started three days earlier near the village of Cannich, and at that point no one knew it might become the largest wildfire ever recorded in the United Kingdom. Nine fire appliances and a water-bombing helicopter were already at work below. Two firefighters had been airlifted to hospital the previous day when their vehicle overturned at the site. The fire would not be controlled for another two weeks, and by the time it was, around 50 per cent of the RSPB Corrimony nature reserve was blackened ash.

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Cannich wildfire: Twelve Forty-Six in the Afternoon

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service took the call at 12:46 p.m. on 28 May 2023. A 'very high' wildfire warning had been in place across much of Scotland since 26 May—the spring had been dry, the heather and bracken brittle. The cause of the Cannich fire itself was never determin...

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Cannich wildfire: Two Firefighters and a Mountain Track

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 30 May, two firefighters were airlifted to hospital after their vehicle overturned at the fireground. They were the only injuries the blaze produced. Both were discharged the next day. The fire service did not release further details about the accident, but the difficulty of f...

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Cannich wildfire: The Corrimony Nature Reserve

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Simon McLaughlin manages the RSPB Corrimony reserve, and his accounts during and after the fire put names to what was lost. Hundreds of native trees planted to regenerate habitats were destroyed. Ground-nesting birds—black grouse among them—lost chicks and eggs that would normall...

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Cannich wildfire: Two Hundred Thousand Pounds and a Decade

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The RSPB launched an emergency appeal to fund recovery. It raised over £200,000. The money went toward replanting trees, rebuilding deer fencing to keep grazers off recovering vegetation, and preparing the reserve to withstand future fires—the latter perhaps the most important in...

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Cannich wildfire: From Cannich to Daviot to Carsphairn

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Highland wildfire risk did not end with Cannich. While crews were still working the original site, the Daviot fire broke out 30 miles north-east on 11 June. Four days later, the Dalshangan Forest blaze ignited near Carsphairn in Dumfries and Galloway. The cluster pointed to s...

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