Earlier this month the Scottish Government announced a delay, for the second time, of the implementation of muirburn licensing after caving in to pressure from aggressive lobbying by the grouse shooting industry (see here).
The very same day this announcement was made, prescribed muirburn, started (legally) by gamekeepers on a grouse moor in the Cairngorms National Park, got out of control and developed in to a wildfire, causing damage to the neighbouring Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve (see here and here).
A blog reader has sent in this photo of the aftermath of that fire, showing part of the torched moorland and an ‘information’ board that stands nearby, apparently produced by the Grampian Moorland Group (gamekeepers) and endorsed with the logos of a number of shooting industry organisations, as well as the Cairngorms National Park Authority. I doubt it’s meant to be ironic, but it is.
The text on that ‘information’ board deserves close attention, so here’s a zoomed-in version for your amusement:
Many other grouse moors have also been torched this month – standard practice at this time of year and set to continue for the next six months until the muirburn season ends on 31 March 2026.
Imagine that! Six months of setting fire to one of the most sensitive and important habitats for carbon sequestration, in the middle of a climate emergency, with the blessing of a Government that is ignoring the will and intent of the Scottish Parliament by delaying the implementation of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024. And all because it doesn’t want to upset wealthy landowners. It’s astonishing.
Had the Scottish Government adhered to the will of Parliament, the torching of grouse moors, carried out to increase the number of Red Grouse available for shooting, would not be happening.
Muirburn licensing, which would only permit the fires under very limited circumstances (and not for the purpose of increasing Red Grouse stocks for shooting), was supposed to have been in place by the start of the 2025/2026 muirburn season on 15 September 2025, following the Scottish Parliament voting in favour of it 18 months previously.
However, in June 2025 the Scottish Government announced it was delaying implementation until 1 January 2026 because the grouse shooting industry had laughably argued that it wasn’t practical or fair for the licences to begin in September 2025 (see here).
Since then, the grouse shooting industry has continued its lobbying and now wants the licences dropped altogether because of what it calls the ‘need’ for muirburn to ‘control the fuel load’ – the amount of combustible vegetation which could influence the intensity and spread of wildfires. The lobbying was successful, leading to Minister Jim Fairlie’s announcement earlier this month that licensing would now be delayed until the start of next year’s muirburn season in autumn 2026.
But as Scottish Greens MSP Ariane Burgess pointed out,
“During the scrutiny of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act we took detailed evidence on the role of muirburn in wildfire risk. There is very little credible evidence to support the hunting and shooting lobby’s ridiculous claim that these practices have any role in preventing wildfires“.
This theme continues today in another excellent blog written by Professor Douglas MacMillan and posted on the Parkswatchscotland website. Professor MacMillan shows compelling evidence that ‘the practice of muirburn actually made no difference to the extent of the Dava mega-fire‘.
Well worth a read – here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
“Vested interests and the voices of the powerful now hold sway”
Was always thus and will continue, what will it take for governments to stop touching the forelock to these powerful and vested interests?
I think it’s a straightforward betrayal by the SNP… who will ruthlessly dangle the independence carrot to ward-off criticism and split any land reform vote:-(
The next election could be convulsive, and result in a mess (a bit like the Knesset) where alliances might continually shift between parties, or between MSPs across parties, depending on the issue?
Doesn’t bide well for social cohesion:-(
It makes perfect sense to burn back certain areas of moorland during the cold and wet winter months, to reduce the fire load during the hot dry months of spring and summer. The burnt areas provide perfect new growth for the chicks in the spring time and if there is a wildfire in the dry summer months, the burnt stripes provide fire breaks to hold up the wildfire and breaks for fire fighters to get into the fire.
“It makes perfect sense to burn back certain areas of moorland during the cold and wet winter months, to reduce the fire load during the hot dry months of spring and summer.”
No, it does not, because the only reason any moorland can possibly be ‘dry’ in spring and summer is because the shooting industry has systematically drained it – with miles upon miles of ARTIFICIAL drains and ditches:-(
Wet moorland does not burn. Dry moorland does not produce any peat:-(
“the burnt stripes provide fire breaks to hold up the wildfire and breaks for fire fighters to get into the fire.”
And yet, as we see every year, that does not work:-( The wild fires caused by the shooting industry run out of control despite all your ‘burnt strips’ :-(
“The burnt areas provide perfect new growth for the chicks in the spring time”
And yet Red Grouse managed to survive perfectly well for the millennia before muirburn and grouse shooting was invented by the shooting industry.
It is the practises of grouse shooting which cause all the problems on high moorland:-(
I wonder about the possible effect and its consequences on the lead shot scattered on the ground when heather and peat are burned. Could it be mobilised in some way?
“Could it be mobilised in some way?”
Almost certainly:-( Lead melts around 327°C and begins to produce ‘hazardous’ fumes at 482°C.
I read that heather ignites from 250°C to 400°C (depending upon moisture content) but will reach much higher temperatures (600+°C) during burning…
<!– /wp:
I agree whatever suits nobody gives a toss really they just do as they want raping and pillaging the moorland it looks a state barren lifeless except for Gamebirds .