Travelling in time at Flanders Moss

Plastic dam put in place to retain water and help re-wet the moss

To bring in New Year 2013, I took a journey back in time – following in the footsteps of a 10-year-old explorer back to Flanders Moss. It’s uncomfortable to think it’s been 36 years since my last visit to the Stirlingshire lowland raised bog. Life cannot be so short.

I remember my childhood expedition as a day full of discoveries – a sodden trek on a blistering hot June day that left me with sunburn and a stomach bug. So parched were my companions and I that we took to drinking out of a stream that we later realised was the stripling River Forth.

My childhood notebook records some of the discoveries that, in retrospect, made the discomfort worthwhile. We walked through a huge colony of Lesser Black-backed Gulls – many with eggs or small chicks – while it seemed that Common Adder were on station at every grassy tussock. We also recorded Black Grouse and a single female Western Capercaillie – my first and to-date only sighting.

These memories flooded back on my return to Flanders Moss at the start of 2013 to gather some information for a college assignment. There was certainly no need for sun cream on the mild but overcast January morning, nor was there a long trek in over fields from the Thornton road. As a National Nature Reserve, declared in 1982, the moss has become explorer-friendly. A car park leads to a boardwalk which elevates pedestrians a few centimetres from the peat and mire. No wet trousers and ruined boots.

Mixed Sphagnum moss and Cladonia lichens at Flanders Moss NNR

A total of 550ha of active raised bog remain, characterised by a heath field layer and ground layer of Sphagnum mosses. A further 250ha is degraded raised bog that has been subject to past drainage and tree planting. Fourteen species of Sphagnum have been identified at Flanders Moss – an indicator of the excellent condition of the bog habitat. Yet the gull colony and the grouse have become extinct at Flanders Moss in the past three decades – even as management starts to restore the bog.

But masses of Pink-footed Geese flew overhead and I also saw Roe Deer, Common Buzzard, Brambling, Common Snipe and Great-spotted Woodpecker. I look forward to returning on a hot June day – but I won’t allow so much time to elapse before my next expedition to Flanders Moss.