Issue Nine · Page 70Autumn and Winter 2024–25 · page 70Elusive Creatures.
As winter draws in, longer nights shorten the window for spotting wildlife. But creature watching after dark brings its own advantages – and thrill, says Emily Rose Mawson, as she discovers five wildlife hides for day and night.
WordsEmily Rose MawsonPhotographySarah Afiqah Rodgers
Photograph · Sarah Afiqah Rodgers As
Scotland: A wilderness. A place where creatures forage unseen. A place where it’s not uncommon for an otter to slink across the path in front of you. Or to feel the magic of coming face-to-face with a red stag. The experience amps up in spine-tingling-ness when it takes place after dark: when eye shine pierces the cloak of nighttime.
“Wildlife watching at night definitely has its own brand of attraction, just as watching wildlife in daytime does,” says Harris Brooker, an evening guide with Speyside Wildlife in the Cairngorms National Park. “Even for things that are not strictly nocturnal, such as red and roe deer, if light conditions are poorer there’s a certain thrill in coming across them suddenly. It can make even benign creatures seem more exciting and otherworldly.”
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The Modern Croft.
The Collins dictionary defines a ‘croft’ as ‘a small, enclosed plot of land, adjoining a house, worked by the occupier and his family,’ an unsentimental summing up that does little to evoke the harsh realities of crofting life over the centuries. Today, however, the word is more likely to conjure up a cute cottage in a bucolic rural setting. For just as the ‘bothy’ has been reinvented by architects and designers in recent years, old croft houses across the Highlands and islands are being restored and converted into hip hideaways and field-to-fork restaurants for design-savvy tourists.
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