Country diary: After the devastating summer fires, the first green shoots | Amanda Thomson

Cairngorms: The scale and depth of damage is shocking, but there are precious small signs of recovery It’s over three months since the fire started that eventually engulfed 25 square kilometres of moorland and forest in the Cairngorms. I’ve now seen much of the area where the fire raged and have been shocked at the blackness of the land, how many of the moorland pines are dark as charcoal, their needles an unnaturally singed rust colour that goes on into the far distance, into the forest itself. I joined a