Today I took a journey through time. I travelled back 400 years to a time before the industrial revolution, to a time before there were cars , before there were jet engines and even before the Internet. I did a pretty simple thing. I walked up a hill and stood beside a small Lake. There, in the trees around the loch, were the signs of something that has not been around for over 400 years.

It is nearly half a Millennium ago that the signs that I saw were evident in the British landscape. Yet today I was able to walk up to a tree and touch with my fingertips the huge gouge made in the side of the tree by a  Beaver. These creatures were hunted to extinction well over 400 years ago . They were shot and trapped for their fur and for meat until eventually non remained in the British Isles.

I never thought that I would be able to see Beaver in the wild in Britain. Beaver only existed in my imagination. When I was a boy I would imagine myself racing through the wild forests of Canada shooting my enemies and fighting with trappers. These men wore Beaver skin hats the long tail of the Beaver hanging down their backs. I thought of Beaver as creatures that existed thousands of miles away it never occurred to me, in my boyhood adventures, the Beavers once walked up on our land. Beaver are now here to stay in the British landscape. They were reintroduced at 2 separate sites in Scotland in around 2015. The first site was an official release add a Valley called Knapdale.  Knapdale was chosen because it is a relatively confined Valley out of which it is unlikely that the Beaver would stray. The 2nd place that they were released, or possibly simply escaped from a private collection, is the Tay Valley. The major difference between the two sites is that the Tay Valley is part of a large River system which means that beaver released there are free to spread across the rest of Scotland.

This morning I drove to the Highland town of Dunkeld which is only some 2 miles from the loch I am looking at now. I would have imagined that if Beaver were to be reintroduced they would be brought back to some very remote spot. The loch I’m looking at, which is called Mill Dam, is far from remote and the path around it is busy with cyclists and joggers who seem to be oblivious of the fact that only a few yards from the path that they are using an environmental miracle is taking place.

Read Sky Dance, my novel on rewilding. Follow Angus and Rory as the battle Lord Purdey to reintroduce the lynx. Also available in paperback

When I left Dunkeld I first visited the Scottish Wildlife Trusts reserve at the loch of the Lowes.  The reserve is set beside a loch on which there were a wide variety of water birds. It’s only possible to observe this stretch of water from the bird hides that the trust has constructed. Although I did see some signs of Beaver activity on the other side of the loch I wasn’t able to get very close to it so I asked advice of the staff there and they directed me to the loch but I stand beside and where I found Beaver signs.

I thought that it might be difficult for me to find signs of Beaver activity. I need not have worried because in fact beaver signs were everywhere around this small stretch of water. There were trees that had been half eaten through hanging precariously from small sections of the trunk. There were other trees that had already been felled and were laying half in and half out of the water attached only very slightly by the conical remains where Beavers had bitten through them.  here and there were obvious signs that Beaver had been feeding on saplings and there was a beaten path out of the water to an area of new growth.

Beavers are nocturnal animals and as my visit was during the day I knew it was unlikely that I would see them . To be honest I was more than delighted to see evidence of their activities. Beavers are now a protected species in Scotland they have spread widely along the Tay and it’s very clear that they are here to stay I am very happy to see evidence of these incredible creatures having returned to our environment. Not only are Beavers animals that add to our natural habitat in themselves but they will also shape our environment. Beavers are natural engineers and will dam rivers and create areas of wetland wherever they are. These areas of wetland are of considerable benefit to a wide variety of other species who will be able to populate them. Not only does this wetland help other species but it also helps us as humans. It does this by creating areas where floods can dissipate into so that in periods of heavy rain hour habitations downstream are saved from flooding. Although there will on occasions be a need to control the Beaver population in areas of rich farmland nevertheless it’s clear that there is plenty of room for both Beavers and us.

Though I didn’t see a Beaver on this occasion I’m sure I’ll keep coming back to this and other places where Beavers are . Over the years I have no doubt that I’ll be able to watch as the landscape is transformed but I always remember the day in January but I came here and travelled through time.