The Great Wood

Book excerpt: “Tackles the legend of the . . . forest said to have once stretched from coast to coast and to have covered much of the Scottish uplands and Highlands.” —The Herald The Great Wood of Caledon—the historic native forest of Highland Scotland—has a reputation as potent and misleading as the wolves that ruled it. The popular image is of an impassable, sun-snuffing shroud, a Highlandswide jungle infested by wolf, lynx, bear, beaver, wild white cattle, wild boar, and wilder painted men. Jim Crumley shines a light into the darker corners of the Great Wood, to re-evaluate some of the questionable elements of its reputation, and to assess the possibilities of its partial resurrection into something like a national forest. The book threads a path among relict strongholds of native woodland, beginning with a soliloquy by the Fortingall Yew, the one tree in Scotland that can say of the hey-day of the Great Wood 5,000 years ago: “I was there.” The journey is enriched by vivid wildlife encounters, a passionate and poetic account that binds the slow dereliction of the past to an optimistic future. “Crumley’s greatest talent lies in his ability to convey genuine sympathy for the wildlife he observes, and a somehow calming sense that, however much mankind might like to think itself above all that, we’re really all just part and parcel of the same continuum . . . A great antidote to modern life.” —Daily Record “An engaging read.” —BBC Wildlife Magazine “Crumley gives unique insight into the rich history of this land.” —Scottish Field