Tomintoul Wildflower Meadow – Guest Blog
Read to learn how the Crown Estate Scotland team, a local farmer & the Tomintoul community turned an empty strip of land into a thriving wildflower meadow to help their local pollinators.
Right on the edge of Tomintoul there is a 0.7 hectares rectangular strip of land. It has become an annual gathering point for those who live nearby and others from further afield. And it’s not just people who visit. Last week I sat and watched a Wheatear work its way through this strip of land shortly before it would have taken flight to Africa, flying over 2000km nonstop for up to 30 hours.
This strip of land is the Tomintoul Wildflower Meadow and what a privilege it is to have a Wheatear fuel up at it before its long-distance migration! We are probably all aware of the often-quoted statistic that the UK has lost 97% of its wildflower meadows since the 1930s. Local farmer and Crown Estate Scotland tenant Hamish McIntosh was keen to be a part of overturning this statistic. With support from the Tomintoul & Glenlivet Wildlife Group, and the Tomintoul and Glenlivet Landscape Partnership, he planted it up as a meadow. This was with the hope it would transform this small area into a sanctuary for pollinators.

Tomintoul Wildlife Meadow – Mark Johnston
How Tomintoul Wildflower Meadow began
In 2017, the work began with ground preparation. This involved spraying with herbicide as the area was heavily dominated by docks. The field was then ploughed and a seedbed prepared, and the meadow was finally planted with seed from Scotia Seeds. However, the way this meadow was created is not current best practice. This methodology was the decision taken at the time by the stakeholders.
For the first few years cutting of the meadow was done mechanically with the help of another local farmer Andy. Then in 2020, following the first COVID lockdown, local volunteers learned to use scythes to cut part of the meadow. However, an additional lockdown in 2021 hindered the progress of this. When I started in my role in 2021, I was approached by meadow enthusiasts Mike and Amy. They asked if I could support the scything of the meadow.
As Glenlivet Estate is part of the NESBiP, I felt this was an obvious place to put out a call for scything knowledge. Doug Gooday from Outdoor and Woodland Learning NE Scotland (OWLS) responded in swift fashion, and we hatched a plan. We organised for Doug to train people in the art of scything and had additional NESBiP support from John Malster (CuramFyvie). CuramFyvie showed us how to collect seeds and spoke about the preference for using local provenance seeds. We invited Cairngorms National Park Trainee Rangers and Volunteer Rangers along to take part as well as opening the day up for people in the community to drop in and have a go. This was a huge success with over 20 people taking part.
What we’ve learnt along the way
Scything is a very social activity and a wonderful way to spend time in nature. It is also a much quieter, more sensitive way to cut meadows than using machinery. The presence of the meadow hasn’t just created a good habitat for a range of wildlife but an annual gathering place. We have just had our third annual community scything day, and it remains a success and something we will continue.
In terms of managing the meadow, the plan is to continue cutting annually and remove the cut material. A five-metre-wide strip is left uncut each year to provide seeds and cover for birds (remember our Wheatear) and small mammals. Now for a confession, this all sounds wholesome and a low impact way to manage the area. However, we have not managed to get the complete area cut by scythes over the last three years. Due to this we have had to resort to machinery to finish the uncut area. Including tidying some of the sections that weren’t scythed so well, and bale the cuttings.
Another area where we have experienced challenges is in the use of the cut material. It would be ideal to have an end use for this, but this is not something that has been realised. We have had some interest from farmers from outside the Estate, but these haven’t come to fruition. This year the plan was blocked by a long-term bridge closure. This meant the cut material couldn’t be baled until long after it had been cut. What has happened though, is that people involved in the scything have taken small amounts of material. Which they’ve used to spread seed to start or supplement their own wildflower haven.

Tomintoul Wildlife Meadow Scything Event 2024 – Abbie Ferrar
Something new at Tomintoul Wildflower Meadow
This year, in addition to the scything day we added a new event to the meadow programme. A half day bioblitz. We were joined in this by keen local wildlife recorder Malcolm, who has been involved with the meadow from the very beginning. Two wonderful finds on the day were Magnificent Sun Beetle and Ox-eyed Daisy Flies. In the words of Malcolm, ‘both of these species show that the effort to create a wildflower meadow is starting to bring in interesting and important species that would not have been there before.’ This is great, but the highlight was seeing a group of people from toddlers up. Who have been brought together by the meadow. Connecting with each other but also with the landscape.
We hope to continue with this programme of management and engagement. Hopefully adding some powerful interpretation next year that will engage people with the meadow all year long.
Thank you to everyone involved
You may have noticed that there are several individuals named in this article and there are many others who have been involved but not named. You could say it takes a village to raise a wildflower meadow! From toddlers to farmers, local enthusiasts to Rangers and meadow experts, they have all been involved to make Tomintoul Wildflower Meadow what it is. In return I think the meadow has given them all something back.
Have a project, event or some news you’d like to share with us? Contact us at nesbip@hutton.ac.uk to be featured in our news or projects section.

Mark Johnston
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Mark Johnston
Glenlivet Estate Head Ranger, Crown Estate Scotland