The A9 and nature are not, you might think, obvious bedfellows. Every day cars roar north and south along this tarmac spine of Scotland, the country’s longest road, releasing carbon dioxide into the air from their exhausts.
And yet for a six-mile stretch of the road just south of Dalnaspidal, almost at the geographic heart of the country, willow, rowan and pine fill the central reservation in a burst of colour and foliage. The contrast with the surrounding hills, which stretch away bare on either side, couldn’t be more stark.
And so a route notorious for accidents and the subject of criticism over the delays to the dualling of the road between Inverness and Perth — delayed until 2035 — is also an example of inadvertent rewilding.
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