[Dylanfm]

There's a woodland on Hoy, Orkney's wildest looking island, which is a great snapshot of what a real native Orkney woodland would look like. There are no deer on Orkney, so the woodland gives a great impression of the different layers of species that form when given a chance (the rest of Scotland has a herbivore problem).

Here's a great post on the woodland by a very knowledgeable person: https://alanwatsonfeatherstone.com/a-day-in-scotlands-most-n...

I live on the mainland across the Pentland Firth from Hoy, with our place looking across to the hilly island. We've planted 1,000 trees or so over the past couple of years. I'm growing a lot more from seed I collect locally from woodlands that weren't planted by someone (true local seed stock). There aren't so many native woodlands in this area and it's almost impossible to source trees grown from local seed. It's great to see proof that even on Orkney these sorts of woodlands want to thrive.