SNH Area News


West Highland Correspondents: Christine Welsh, Martin Faulkner, Sarah Prall


‘Des-res’ for bats


A warm – and clean – welcome awaited bats at the National Trust for Scotland's Glenfinnan Visitor Centre when they arrived back earlier this year. The centre’s timber wall cladding now includes a state-of-the-art bat roost after work to replace old timbers. The refurbishment included design improvements to allow the colony of bats to make their seasonal return to the building, where they’ve had a home since the building went up 30 years ago.


Bats are a protected species, so


no work began until SNH could advise on the best way to avoid harming the animals. Usually, work can take place outwith the maternity season when the bats are not present. The building has a maternity roost of around 170 pipistrelle bats. The building’s unique and innovative


design now allows the bats access to the cavity, while stopping water getting in. It also allows the bat droppings to escape, making it less likely that there will be further problems for the bats or the building. With autumn approaching, the bats


are now leaving the maternity roost to find a safe place to hibernate through the winter. But come spring, they’ll be back again to breed in their new and improved accommodation.


Parallel fame


The famous ‘parallel roads’ in Glen Roy National Nature Reserve are about to become even more well known when they feature in three different television programmes this autumn. The parallel roads are a series of


striking horizontal lines on the hillside. Early Highlanders thought they were made by the mythical giant-hero Fingal. Later scientific theories included the notion that they were beaches created at a time of rapid changes in sea level, a theory initially championed by Charles Darwin. Later, he supported Swiss geologist


Louis Agassiz, who proposed that the roads were beaches formed by a large lake dammed by ice. The roads are still studied today and it’s now clear that they’re the result of the action of glaciers and melt waters during the last ice age some 10,000 years ago. This autumn Glen Roy and its


amazing landforms will feature in The Birth of Britain on Channel 4, presented by Tony Robinson. A BBC programme, exploring how Scottish geologists and geology shaped early thinking about our planet, will also feature the site. And Glen Roy will feature as well in the second series of Great British Railway Journeys, as presenter Michael Portillo discovers the delights of the West Highland railway line.


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Mink survey on track


American mink are being tracked across Skye and Lochalsh this summer. The Skye and Lochalsh Environment Forum (SLEF) have developed a plan to find out just how widespread this non-native predator is in their area. American mink are becoming increasingly common in the UK and can pose a significant threat to native wildlife, particularly wildfowl, waders and water voles. SLEF have been able to appoint local consultant Rob Forrest to train and coordinate a team of 50 volunteers, thanks to funding support from SNH, LEADER and the Highland Council,. Each volunteer will take charge of


a mink raft or tunnel, which presents a specially designed structure that mink like to enter. Each structure is fitted with a clay pad that preserves the footprints of passing animals. These will be monitored from August to April, with any distinctive mink footprints recorded to give an indication of their presence. All the data will then be looked


at to provide valuable information about the spread of mink in this part of Scotland. It should help to inform decisions on the action needed to curb their spread in future.


The Nature of Scotland


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