Dumfriesshire Botany Group at Moffat Sunday 19th April 2026
On a fine dry day eight of us met in the car park by the Annan in Moffat for the first meeting of the year. The aim was to visit two woodland areas one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the morning we took two cars to the limited parking just south of Drumcrieff. This is where the Southern Upland Way goes through riverside woodland and fields.The woodland here is probably former policy woodland associated with Drumcrieff House. This Georgian mansion house has roots as far back as 1357 and the Murray Family. In 1819 Dr Rogerson, former personal physician to Catherine the Great, purchased the large Wamphry Estate and rebuilt Drumcrieff in its current form.
As we walked through the woodland we admired the large mature Beech Fagus sylvatica more often found as hedgerow trees but here forming a woodland. Their canopy is dark in summer and the ground floor has a sparse flora beneath them, apart from the pretty widespread regenerating beech saplings. On this visit the beech leaves were yet to open so we were able to find a scatter of early spring plants, more particularly towards the Moffat Water, where the canopy is more open under a greater variety of trees, allowing more light. Plants in flower in the beech area included Common Dog-violet Viola riviniana, Wood-sorrel Oxalis acetosella, Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta and both Hairy Wood-rush Luzula pilosa and Great Wood-rush Luzula sylvatica.
As we worked towards the Moffat Water the ground got wetter and the flora more diverse. In the wettest areas there were large patches of Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, smaller patches of Lesser Celandine Ficaria verna ssp. fertilis and scattered Upland Enchanters- nightshade Circaea x intermedia and Red Campion Silene dioica. The presence of some non native species in the area along the Moffat Water probably stems from previous landscape planting associated with Drumcrieff House which sits on the opposite side of the river. So stands of Fetter-Bush Leucothoe fontanesiana, Bleeding-heart Dicentra formosa, Garden Solomans-seal Polygonatum x hybridum and species Rhododendrons had probably persisted for many years.These were mixed with native species like Moschatel Adoxa moschatellina and Marsh Marigold Caltha palustris. Thickets of Bird Cherry Prunus padus hosted a good stand of Toothwort Lathraea squamaria. These were fully in flower with several trees hosting this parasite. There were over a 100 spikes, 40 on one tree and it was difficult to avoid stepping on them. Elsewhere in the wood Zoe showed us interesting sticks with a giraffes neck pattern caused by fungi and Malcolm showed a Myxomycete called Wolfs Milk Lycogala sp.
We went back into Moffat and had lunch on a bench beside the river Annan. We then moved up to the top of the town before walking up into the Gallowhill Wood now a community owned woodland. Gallowhill was purchased in 2016 from Annandale Estates. It was at that time a conifer plantation. But it did have an earlier life as a destination for Moffat residents and visitors with carriage drives and Italian inspired planting. The vision today is to convert it to a broadleaf woodland for wildlife biodiversity, outdoor classroom and leisure and exercise.We recorded the range of plants and trees on this hill which falls into one Monad. One feature is the poor acid soil which means limited plant diversity is likely. The former conifer plantation also will have eradicated most native species over large areas and only limited stands of Heather Calluna vulgaris and Blaeberry Vaccinium myrtillus remain. Along the path edges the Red-berried Elder Sambucus racemosa might indicate previous pheasant breeding. One interesting find was shown to us by Bob. He had been to the site with the bryologists previously and they had rediscovered the moss Ostrich-plume Feather-moss Ptilium crista-castrensis. This is rather rare in Southern Scotland but was known from the site and other parts of the Moffat Hills and hopefully has a chance to continue on the woodland floor.
Total records morning NT1003 91, afternoon NT0806 81
Chris Miles
BSBI county recorder for Dumfriesshire VC73 – see bsbi.org/dumfriesshire
