Scotland: land of majestic glens, ancient castles and burning forests.

Thick grey smoke drifting across the Scottish landscape is becoming an unwelcome part of Scotland’s spring and summer.

Is there any realistic chance of stopping them or is this what Scotland’s future holds?

This week Culbin forest near Forres has been alight; a month ago it was Glen Rosa on Arran; a week prior to that it was Galloway. By the end of April, more of the UK had been burnt by wildfires than the total for any year in more than a decade, according to the Global Wildfire Information System.

The impacts on wildlife and cost to landowners can be pretty devastating. “We’ve lost 10 years of conservation work and effort,” said one Arran ranger in the wake of the Glen Rosa fire. “We just have to start again.”

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True, it’s been an unusually dry spring, but the worrying long-term Scottish trend is for more intense, harder-to-handle fires that often begin on moorland and spread into forests.

California suffered a deep collective trauma in January when a series of huge blazes broke out due to a combination of conditions – a period of high rainfall promoting vegetation growth, followed by drought, followed by high winds. At least 30 people died and more than 18,000 homes were destroyed.

Scotland may not be a high hazard location for destructive wildfires like the western US, but the so-called “hydroclimate whiplash” effect – a wet period followed by an intense dry period – is being more frequently observed in locations around the world including Scotland, creating the conditions for more........

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