NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Scottish Highlands on 31 May 2023 and photographed a plume of smoke drifting east toward Loch Ness. The fire it was carrying had started three days earlier near the village of Cannich, and at that point no one knew it might become the largest wildfire ever recorded in the United Kingdom. Nine fire appliances and a water-bombing helicopter were already at work below. Two firefighters had been airlifted to hospital the previous day when their vehicle overturned at the site. The fire would not be controlled for another two weeks, and by the time it was, around 50 per cent of the RSPB Corrimony nature reserve was blackened ash.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service took the call at 12:46 p.m. on 28 May 2023. A 'very high' wildfire warning had been in place across much of Scotland since 26 May—the spring had been dry, the heather and bracken brittle. The cause of the Cannich fire itself was never determined, though the SFRS launched an investigation. What was clear from the start was scale. Within days the fire was tackled by nine appliances and a helicopter dropping water from above. Press coverage compared the burned area to twice the size of Elgin, or more than 2,000 football pitches. The Guardian reported on 31 May that it might become the UK's largest wildfire on record. The warnings extended through 5 June, then again from 7 to 10 June, and even on the latter date the fire had not been declared out.
On 30 May, two firefighters were airlifted to hospital after their vehicle overturned at the fireground. They were the only injuries the blaze produced. Both were discharged the next day. The fire service did not release further details about the accident, but the difficulty of fighting fire in the Highland landscape is part of the story—steep, trackless terrain that defeats normal appliances, weather that shifts without warning, smoke that descends into glens and refuses to lift. The water-bombing helicopter helped where ground crews couldn't reach. A 'very high' grading the SFRS extended on 31 May covered most of Scotland, suggesting the conditions weren't unique to Cannich. By 11 June, a second wildfire had broken out 30 miles away near Daviot; four days later, a third ignited in Dalshangan Forest near Carsphairn.
Simon McLaughlin manages the RSPB Corrimony reserve, and his accounts during and after the fire put names to what was lost. Hundreds of native trees planted to regenerate habitats were destroyed. Ground-nesting birds—black grouse among them—lost chicks and eggs that would normally have been emerging from their nests at this season. Fast-moving animals like spiders and lizards survived. Frogs did not. McLaughlin was blunt about his concern at the lack of chicks in habitats that should have been full of them. About half of the reserve, plus large areas of Forestry and Land Scotland land, had burned. RSPB Scotland said it could not fully assess the wildlife impact in the immediate aftermath. The visible damage was easier to describe: 'the landscape blackened with ash,' as accounts had it.
The RSPB launched an emergency appeal to fund recovery. It raised over £200,000. The money went toward replanting trees, rebuilding deer fencing to keep grazers off recovering vegetation, and preparing the reserve to withstand future fires—the latter perhaps the most important investment, given that climate forecasts suggest the 'very high' warnings of 2023 will become routine. By October 2023, RSPB Scotland was reporting early signs of recovery. McLaughlin estimated full recovery would take five to six years. A year after the fire, in May 2024, he said 'the green shoots of recovery are already starting to show.' Photographs from BBC News a year on showed black grouse returning, native saplings rising from the ash, and the deer fencing back in place. The reserve's restoration will outlast the news cycle that watched it burn.
The Highland wildfire risk did not end with Cannich. While crews were still working the original site, the Daviot fire broke out 30 miles north-east on 11 June. Four days later, the Dalshangan Forest blaze ignited near Carsphairn in Dumfries and Galloway. The cluster pointed to something larger than a single accident: the SFRS extended its 'very high' warnings repeatedly across the country, calls grew for public education campaigns on fire safety in the countryside, and the question of whether climate change had loaded the dice became unavoidable. Cannich sits in Strathglass at the mouth of Glen Affric, a few miles south-west of Drumnadrochit, in a stretch of countryside whose mixed forest, heather moor, and bog has been adapted to wet Atlantic weather for thousands of years. A dry spring in 2023 turned it into kindling for two weeks.
Located at 57.31N, 4.76W near the village of Cannich, at the entrance to Glen Affric. Inverness Airport (EGPE) sits 18 nm north-east. The Corrimony nature reserve lies west-south-west of the village. Burn scars from 2023 remain visible from altitude even years later—patches of darker, lower vegetation against the surrounding forest and heather. Recommended viewing altitude 2,500 to 4,000 ft AGL. The smoke plume that drifted east toward Loch Ness in late May 2023 was photographed by NASA satellites; in normal conditions, the view from above takes in Glen Affric to the south-west, Strathglass running north-east toward the Beauly Firth, and the rising peaks of the Affric-Mullardoch range beyond. Highland weather can shift quickly—what looks like clear visibility can collapse within minutes.