IT’S an often overlooked area of Scotland yet the northeast coast of Aberdeenshire, Angus and Moray is a treasure trove of wildlife and stunning views.
These are now highlighted in a new book by naturalist Keith Broomfield called Where A Cold Light Falls.
Having recently published the popular Wild Edinburgh, a study of the city of his youth, the wildlife writer has now turned his attention to this sometimes forgotten corner of Scotland.
“It’s just such an amazing place but maybe it’s overlooked a bit,” he told the Sunday National. “Yet there are just so many fantastic parts. The coastline is wonderful with cliffs and rocky coves and all kinds of stories to tell about them.
“Then of course a lot of the communities in the northeast were built around fishing, like Fraserburgh and Rosehearty so there has been an interaction between nature and humanity with the fishing and the farming and so forth. It’s an area I have really fallen in love with and visit as much as I can.”
His affection for the area began as a student of zoology at Aberdeen University in the early 1980s and continued as he worked in the Granite City for a number of years afterwards.
“As a keen young nature enthusiast, I adored exploring Aberdeenshire, Angus and Moray in search of their wild treasures and became completely smitten by the diversity of landscapes, ranging from the towering tops of the Cairngorms to the stormy allure of the Buchan coast,” he said.
He first saw a dotterel on a high plateau near Glen Clunie, watched golden eagles in Glen Ey and glimpsed capercaillies in Glen Tanar.
At a lochan in Moray, he spotted Slavonian grebes, while another memorable day was in autumn among rutting red deer in Glen Esk.
“Other highlights included the cackling cacophony of noise of the seabird cliffs at the Bullers of Buchan and Fowlsheugh, as well as watching the sky blacken with throngs of pink-footed geese whiffling down to their roosting sites by the Montrose Basin,” said Broomfield.
For the new book he revisited some of his old haunts and ventured to places he had never been before in order to write about the wildlife of the area.
He hopes it will encourage others to explore a “special” part of Scotland to seek out its wild secrets and enjoy the beauty of the mountains, woods, rivers, lochs and coast which he believes make the northeast a “compelling” place.
One village on the north-east coast that has attracted a lot of attention is Pennan, with its phone box playing a key part in the hit film Local Hero.
A chapter in the new book features Cullykhan Bay nearby which lies on the lee side of Troup Head, home to a large gannet colony.
Broomfield points out that fishing harbours like those of Peterhead and Fraserburgh are often a good place to spot wildlife such as grey seals.
“You can see them quite close up and in winter time the harbours are refuges for a lot of wildlife,” he said. “If it is stormy offshore, it’s a place where eider and long-tailed ducks can come in and shelter. Long-tailed ducks are very beautiful. They breed up in the Arctic and you often get really great views of them in these harbours.”
Birds like turnstones run along the quayside feeding on scraps of detritus while unusual gulls often turn up, such as the Iceland gull and an Asian bird called the glaucous gull.
“That’s quite rare in Scotland but a few do visit every year and Peterhead and Fraserburgh harbours are great places to see them,” said Broomfield.
The Cairngorms are possibly a more obvious place to see wildlife with birds like eagles, ring ouzels and ptarmigans making the mountains their home.
“You’ve also got all these subarctic alpine type wildflowers like alpine azalea and wonderful clubmosses and lichens on the mountain tops – they’re just great places to wander,” Broomfield said.
Then there is Glen Tanar National Nature Reserve, near Aboyne, a protected glen within the Cairngorms National Park known for extensive remnants of Caledonian pine forest. Here there are capercaillie, the Scottish crossbill, osprey and golden eagles.
Another place Broomfield is fond of is Glen Dye which is just a short hop from Aberdeen.
“I used to love going there in my university days and when I lived in Aberdeen, but I didn’t go back there for years because my memories were so good and I had a kind of worry that it wasn’t going to be as good as I remembered,” he said.
He went back in order to write the book and wasn’t disappointed.
“It’s not particularly spectacular but it’s got all the wildlife you would expect to see like cuckoos, merlins, wheatears and a wonderful range of wildflowers,” said Broomfield. “It’s a lovely place to visit and very accessible from Aberdeen.”
Illustrations in the book are by Rob Hans to give readers an idea of what to look out for.
“They help bring the book to life and give an idea of the wide variety of wildlife you can see in the northeast,” said Broomfield.
Where A Cold Light Falls by Keith Broomfield is published by Tippermuir Books Ltd
