The bleak scenes of a major wildfire in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park this summer have served as yet another grim reminder of the very real impacts of climate change on our doorsteps. 

As with the Dava ‘megafire’ of last year, the Glenmore / Abernethy incident has thrown questions about how we reduce wildfire risk back into the spotlight. There are many opinions on this, and everyone would love there to be a simple solution.  

However, the reality is that it is going to take multiple approaches to tackle this threat to our landscapes, communities and habitats. That requires significant action at a national level, to ensure that Scotland is prepared to deal with wildfires. Recent incidents in and around the Cairngorms have shown that more work needs to be done to mitigate against, and tackle, future wildfires. 

Our Integrated Wildfire Management Plan, the first of its kind in the UK and developed with extensive input from organisations and land managers across the National Park, sets out how we can collectively tackle wildfires. It covers everything from training guidance, risk assessments and fire-fighting equipment to fuel loads and fire breaks. It also encourages land managers to work together and to consider wildfire in all aspects of their land management planning – including developing robust individual fire plans. 

As part of our commitment to wildfire prevention the Park Authority has brought in a seasonal fire byelaw to ban barbecues and recreational fires, and grant aided over £300,000 of firefighting equipment to farmers and land managers. We’ve worked with Scottish Forestry on updated guidance to ensure that all woodland schemes have measures to counter the risks posed by wildfires. We are also working on a ‘mountain rescue’ style approach to wildfire response with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and others as part of the national Strategic Action Plan on Wildfires.

Fuel load is a thorny subject. Strategic fire breaks, as set out in the management plan, have to be part of the solution so that wildfires can be contained within certain areas. Identifying and maintaining these in the National Park is a priority.  However, crucially we also need more healthy functioning ecosystems to help us build resilience and tackle other challenges of climate change: drought, flooding and nature loss. Fire breaks aren’t just bulldozed tracks. Burns, lochans, ponds, wet peatlands and mature native woodlands also serve as natural fire breaks, an important function in slowing fire and providing refuges for wildlife displaced by fire. 

These approaches to reducing wildfire risk need to be done within the context of delivering integrated land management that results in multiple benefits. Critically, we need to store more water in the landscape to build resilience against wildfire and provide local water sources to fight fires. 

Across the Cairngorms, there are also a number of places now managing land through no-fence collared grazing for conservation purposes. This improves the structural diversity of woodlands and uplands, while also helping to reduce fuel load. We want to see more of this happening in the right places.  Prescribed burning for fire management will also be part of the solution in the right place.

There have been three large wildfires in or close to the National Park over the past 18 months. We do not know all the causes, but what we do know is that they have started and burned through all types of land, used and managed in different ways. 

Constructive conversations about how we manage land to reduce wildfire risk should not be a proxy for a rewilding versus grouse management debate. We need to agree the right approach to wildfire that protects people, property and nature whilst ensuring that we enhance biodiversity and increase our resilience to flooding and drought.

On the issue of preparedness, there is no doubt that we need to sort out the availability of air resources within Scotland to deal with wildfires as an immediate priority. It was one of the main calls following the Dava fire, and this latest wildfire has amplified it again. We need to sort this in Scotland – and the UK as a whole. We also need to fundamentally look at the coordination and deployment of resources between the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the voluntary assistance provided by so many gamekeepers, volunteers, farmers, contractors and staff from other organisations, without which wildfires in Scotland would not be successfully tackled. 

Wildfires are a very emotive subject and seeing some of our best loved places burn has been horrifying. I want to finish by thanking everyone that has helped on the ground to get the fire under control. It is still an ongoing situation involving many people working hard to keep hotspots in check.

We owe it to everyone who has been affected to do what we can to reduce the likelihood of this happening again, while accepting that we can never bring the risk down to zero. This will be a key part of our next National Park Partnership Plan which we will be consulting on this autumn so please check our website for details on how you can take add your voice to the consultation later this year.   

By Grant Moir, CEO, Cairngorms National Park Authority 
First published in the Press & Journal on 26 August 2026