As I drive north through Angus, birch and rowan begin to replace ash and oak, and by the time I reach the foot of the glen, the purple-streaked tops of the Cairngorms have come into view. Glenisla is the last lowland valley before the mountains begin, and it’s home to a rare sight on either side of the Highland line: a thatched roof.
The building is a lodge house on the Knockshannoch estate, and is believed to be the only remaining thatched roundhouse in Scotland. I’ve driven three hours north from the Scottish Borders to repair a hole in its roof (Scottish thatchers are few and far between, so travelling long distances is not unusual here).
As I set to work, I’m met with the dreaded sight of wasps rising out of the thatch – I’ve uncovered a byke. A calm approach can prevent the slide towards mutual destruction, so I suppress the urge to swat them with my thatching leggett – a sort of large comb. After some half-hearted dive-bombing, the wasps lose interest, returning to their business as I attend to mine, gently teasing some new reed into position by their nest. I tighten the thatch on to the battens with “screw wires” – wood screws with two long wire attachments. The tool I use was originally designed to fasten potato sacks, one of many mongrel borrowings you find in thatching.
With the thatch secure, I clamber down the ladder for a cup of tea. The homeowners, Pam and Mark, tell me that it’s been a bad wasp year (or a good one, depending on your perspective) – they’ve already had three bykes removed. Wildlife is never far away here: a heron nested in a neighbouring pine tree this spring and a pine marten has been a regular visitor to the garden. A few years ago, Pam found a bedraggled kitten sheltering from a summer deluge under the deep eaves of the thatch. It turned out to be a Scottish wildcat (a domestic cat hybrid, as most remaining wildcats are).
I finish my tea and prepare a length of chicken wire to cover the patch of new reed. This is a normal precaution against bird damage, but it should also help deter the beaks, teeth and claws of this glen’s other wildlife.
• Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at guardianbookshop.com and get a 15% discount
