THE boss of a leading green charity has suggested the wild lynx could be back in Scotland in less than a decade.
IT was the first big land buyout in Scotland where wealthy owners were forced to sell to the community.
IN the past they have been found upgrading football executive suites, high-powered offices and luxury hotels.
"I’M not sure we should reveal the location,” says Kate Holl. “What if it attracts loads of people?” That, I tell her, is unlikely. We’ve driven three hours from the central belt, taken a bouncy ride in a small boat to an island, tramped for four miles along roads and tracks, changed into wellies to wade across several hundred yards of sea-scoured mud and shell sand, scrambled up rocks, and fought our way through brambles, blackthorn, heather and sprouting hazel.
SCOTLAND, says Jim Mee, is the best place in the world for adventure races. You would expect him to be keen on the country: his business started here, with a groundbreaking event in Edinburgh, the Rat Race, in 2004. Participants abseiled, ran, cycled and canoed around the city, turning it into an urban adventure playground.
FOR those of us prepared to brave horizontal hail, ice and rain, getting in some turns just an hour or two from home is deeply satisfying.
WOLVES and lynx might never be brought back to Scotland in a rewilding project, the head of a new group set up to promote the idea of rewilding here has admitted.
The boat lurches down the rolling waves, and heaves back up. “I thought it would be worse,” says skipper Emma Burgess, smiling at my ashen face from behind the wheel. “This isn’t bad at all.”
