Country diary: We wind slowly upwards with our precious cargo of willow

‘We walk and chat companionably until the path and the steepness dictate we walk in a line and in silence.’ Annual willow walk, Cairngorms, Scotland, June 2023. Photograph: Amanda Thomson

At 650 metres, there’s a cool haze and the mountains above and the valley below are bathed in a soft light. I’m part of a 60-strong work party heading over the Cairngorm plateau to Loch A’an, carrying between us 4,000 montane willow saplings, a species perfectly adapted to the extreme climate of this place. It’s part of a Cairngorms Connect project to restore a rare and fragile habitat. The few remaining populations of these willows are often on cliff edges and steep burnsides where they couldn’t be grazed, and they’re too separated now to reproduce easily. What we carry will be planted between and around the remnant populations.

‘The willow saplings we carry will be planted between and around the remnant populations.’ Photograph: Amanda Thomson