Corrie Fee NNR - visiting the reserve leaflet

The trail to Corrie Fee first takes you through a working forest, originally planted in the 1950s and 1960s for timber, and today managed by the Forestry Commission Scotland to also encourage a wider variety of tree species and create sustainable habitats for wildlife. You can see Sitka spruce, Scots pine, larch and broadleaved trees like birch along the sides of the forest streams and rivers.

As you walk up through the forest look out for woodland plants and colourful fungi in the autumn. Tread quietly and you may see some of the wildlife here, such as red squirrel, roe deer, dipper and crossbill. Signal posts along the trail will reveal some of the things you will see on route to Corrie Fee NNR.

Giant’s armchairs carved by ice

At the tail end of the ice age 12,000 years ago there was a small glacier here in Corrie Fee. Back then, a walk through Corrie Fee would have required rope, ice axe and crampons, even in the middle of July.

As it flowed downhill, the glacier ice excavated the deep corries of Corrie Fee and Corrie Sharroch.

Similar processes happened all across the Cairngorms and other glacially carved features can be seen on the Creag Meagaidh, Muir of Dinnet and Invereshie and Inshriach NNRs.

Earthmoving glaciers

The Cairngorm mountains northwest of Glen Doll were formed when several gigantic masses of molten rock (magma) from deep inside the earth rose up to about 6km below the surface. The magma cooled and hardened, becoming granite which was exposed millions of years later after weathering by water, frost and ice wore away the softer rock above. Today this hard granite can be seen on the summits.

Then during the Ice Age, glaciers flowed down the glen, plucking up rocks and excavating the ground underneath, carving out the rough shape of the glen over thousands of years. As the ice melted, the glaciers retreated back into the corries, leaving gravelly debris behind filling the floor of the glen.

As the Scottish climate grew warmer the Corrie Fee glacier melted, leaving behind distinctive mounds that are now covered in heather. Look out for them as you walk up through the corrie.

From the top of the corrie looking down you can see these mounds form a pattern of ridges showing how the Corrie Fee glacier melted in stages, each time leaving behind a ridge. This is known as recessional moraine.

Arctic survivors

The harsh mountain environment of Corrie Fee NNR is a challenging place to live. The plants and animals found here have developed special ways to survive in the alpine conditions. This is one of the few places in the Cairngorms where a band of nutrient-rich rock, like hornblende schist, creates soils with plant boosters that rare arctic-alpine plants thrive on.

A thick skin and hairy legs could save your life

The fierce winds and strong sunlight would dry out the leaves of ordinary plants. Alpine saxifrage and roseroot have thick, leathery leaves to keep the moisture in. Yellow milk-vetch has stems and leaves covered with tiny white hairs that both reflect the harsh sunlight and trap a layer of moist air next to the plant.

Stay low and keep your head down

High up on the mountainside, where the icy gales blow, is the natural habitat of the gnarled, twisted, and stunted ‘wee’ trees. This natural forest fringe has been lost on most Scottish mountains but here, in Corrie Fee and Corrie Sharroch, is the most extensive remnant of this montane scrub of rare woolly and downy willow. These precious willows keep their heads down, growing low to the ground to escape the worst of the violent wind.

Early start

On these high mountains the growing season is very short. Purple saxifrage bursts into flower before the late snows have disappeared, making sure that its seeds are produced and sown before summer ends.

Preserved in peat

After the glacier retreated it left lochans which filled with fine peat over the last 11,000 years. Pollen from trees, shrubs and plants collected in the growing layers of peat over many summers.

Scientists have studied the peat and, from identifying the pollen trapped within it, have identified the different types of plants that used to grow here.

From this research we know that there were once areas of willow and juniper scrub, and patches of birch and hazel woodland with a few pine, oak, elm and alder.

Alpine plants, for which the corrie is protected today, have been living here continuously since the last ice age. Many of these are now found only on ledges and gullies that grazing deer cannot reach.

One of Britain’s last wildernesses

The pollen story tells us that Corrie Fee was one of the last areas in Britain to be changed by humans. There was little change in the natural plant cover in this remote corrie for 11,000 years.

Then about 200 years ago there was a dramatic change. The woodland virtually disappeared and grassland expanded. Plants which were one widespread across the corrie became restricted to narrow gullies.

This was a time when sheep farming was introduced and the grassland attracted more deer. Young trees and sensitive plants could not survive the grazing. The woodlands died out, but the woolly willow and a variety of now rare plants hung on in the gullies and inaccessible ledges.

This is why today we control deer numbers to protect Corrie Fee’s special plants and habitats and a fence has been used to protect the most important areas for dwarf willows.