🗓️ 5th September 2025, Friday
⏰ 14:30 to 17:00
🗺️ Kirkconnell Flow peatland restoration site
The Climate Kitcheners went on a field trip!
This September, we visited the peatland restoration site at Kirkconnel Flow. You guys are great, the energy was amazing!
This event was a collaboration between @crichtoncarboncentre and @naturescot
This video can give us a little peek into how the day went. Thanks to @gilbert_west for recording the day!
Here are some points from the visit that might interest you.
- You can cycle safely from the centre of Dumfries to this national nature reserve.
- Peatland restoration only began in 2021 but has already made an immense difference. Given the chance and some help from us, Nature can recover.
- Water is held in the sphagnum moss of the bog which reduces flooding risks in the surrounding area and also lessens the effects of droughts.
- 2 new ponds dug out by the car park have now attracted resident kingfishers and dragonflies.
- Examples of bog rosemary, cranberries, sundew, bog roses, and crowberries were seen.
- The raised bog has been growing since the end of the last Ice Age when vegetation in a bowl-shaped depression sank in oxygen-deprived conditions which prevented its decomposition.
- The peat has been growing at a rate of a metre every thousand years since then and in the centre of the bog is now 9 metres thick.
- If you do visit Kirkconnell Flow with a dog, please keep them on a lead at all times, the wildlife comes first.
Many thanks to our guides from Nature Scot who led the group onto the raised bog, only possible outside nesting season and with an official guide as the habitat is so delicate.
We hope that everyone had a good time and learnt something new, and had the opportunity to hold some history on the palm of your hands.
We look forward to continuing to see the impressive and exciting work happening at Kirkconnell Flow and to collaborating with Crichton Carbon Centre and NatureScot again in the future!