Why Scotland’s record wildfires are fundamentally different to those in the past – Dr Johanna Schoenecker

Five years ago, when I began training as a fire ecologist, I chose to study California’s megafires. They seemed a world away from the cool, damp landscapes of Britain. I didn’t imagine that, within a few years, some of the UK’s largest wildfires would be burning across Scottish peatlands. That should surprise us.

Landscapes like these have always burned. Heather moorlands, rough grasslands, and forests all experience wildfires from time to time. Yet the fires of recent years have looked different: they have burned larger areas, lasted longer, and increasingly spread into peat soils that were once too wet to ignite.

Scotland's peatlands, particularly our blanket bogs, have evolved to remain waterlogged year-round. In these oxygen-poor conditions, dead plants accumulate over thousands of years instead of decomposing, creating dark, organic peat, locking away vast quantities of carbon.

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Smoke rises from a wildfire in the Cairngorms National Park (Picture: Michal Wachucik) | Michal Wachucik/PA Wire

Smouldering underground for weeks

Historically, these wet landscapes resisted fire. But climate change is bending the rules. More frequent hot, dry spells are drying out the peat soils, creating time windows when they become flammable.

Every wildfire needs three ingredients: an ignition source, oxygen and fuel. We often think of the latter as trees, shrubs, and grasses. In Scotland, however, when fire spreads into the peat beneath, it turns what is normally a long-term carbon store into the fire's fuel.

Peat fires are often less dramatic than the towering flames seen on the news from the Mediterranean. Once the surface vegetation has burned away, the fire can continue underground, smouldering through the peat for days or even weeks, making it difficult to extinguish and allowing it to re-emerge unexpectedly.

Three of the five largest fires on record in the UK happened in Scotland in recent years: the Dava-Carrbridge fire in Moray (2025), a fire in Galloway and Dumfries (2025) and the Flow Country fire near Caithness (2019) – each burning more than 5,000 hectares.

This is not simply bad luck or a run of unfortunate summers. It is consistent with what fire scientists expect in a warming climate. Scotland is predicted to become even hotter and drier over the next decades, making our landscapes even more flammable.

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Firebreaks, controlled burns and more

The greatest damage caused by peatland fires is often invisible. Within months of a wildfire, the landscape can appear to have recovered. After the Dava-Carrbridge fire, fields of white cottongrass had blanketed much of the burn scar within a year, suggesting the bog was beginning to function again.

But beneath this green veneer lay a very different story. While vegetation can return within seasons, the lost peat cannot be replaced on any meaningful human timescale.

Scotland's recent wildfires should not be dismissed as freak events. We cannot prevent every heatwave or every ignition, but we can decide how resilient our landscapes are when they do occur.

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There is no one-size-fits-all approach to wildfire management. In some places, it will mean restoring wet bogs; elsewhere it may involve reducing dense surface fuels through cutting, grazing or carefully planned, prescribed burning to reduce subsequent wildfire severity. When fire threatens old growth forest, creating strategic firebreaks may also have a role. There is no single solution, which is why local knowledge matters.

These wildfires are a warning. Whether Scotland’s peatlands become increasingly fire-prone, or remain resilient carbon stores, will depend on choices we make now.

Dr Johanna Schoenecker is a fire ecologist at Cambridge University