Volunteers are sought as ancient art of scything returns in Tomintoul
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THE ancient art of scything is coming back to life this summer in Tomintoul.
On August 18, the Glenlivet Estate is looking for volunteers to help cut 0.7 hectares of wildflower meadow which is host to a diverse population of wildlife.
Participants will get the chance to learn about the ancient skill of scything and learn more about the biodiversity that the meadow helps support.
The head ranger at the Glenlivet Estate, Mark Johnston, said: “The meadow was first planted in 2017 because the farmer, Hamish MacIntosh, wanted to get involved with something like this and give a little something back to biodiversity.
“It was given to the community to manage but people needed equipment and needed to be trained. For the first couple of years, the meadow was cut by machine, but the idea was that it would be sensitively managed.”
Supporting the event will be Doug Gooday, a self-trained scyther, and John Malster from Curam Fyvie, a group that looks at planting local seeds and spreading wildflowers throughout the north-east of Scotland.
There will also be Cairngorm Park rangers who help manage the meadow.
The wildflower meadow in Tomintoul is an important asset to the community. Since the 1930s, 97 per cent of wildflower meadows have been lost in the UK.
Where previously meadows would have 30 or more different plant species, now they only have about six.
The event will educate people on this biodiversity and also about wild pollinators such as butterflies, flies and beetles, who do 80 per cent of pollinating.
Mark said: "We often think of honeybees doing most of the pollinating but it is the wild pollinators that do most of the pollinating for our food production in Scotland so it's important to provide areas for them to do well.
“One of my favourites is the St Mark’s fly. People can see these as a nuisance because they are often in big clouds above people’s heads and they have their legs hanging low beneath them. They look a bit sinister but these flies pollinate a lot of our wildflowers as well.”
The Bumblebee Conservation has been working alongside the Glenlivet Estate and has been conducting regular surveys on pollinators in and around Tomintoul. They are also trying to manage the population of the pollinators.
Although scything is dying art, it is more gentle to wildlife. The machinery goes so fast that it does not allow small mammals or nesting birds the chance to escape; the scythe leaves plenty of time.
Mark said that scything is a brilliant way of socialising in the countryside.
He added: “If you are just sitting in a big tractor, there is the noise and you are removed from the countryside itself, whereas when you are quietly scything you are right in amongst it.”
For more information, search for Tomintoul Wildflower Meadow Volunteer Scything Day on Facebook.
