Grey Mares Tail Waterfall - Jan 2025

The rather "provocatively feminine" Grey Mares Tail waterfall on the Moffat Hills, Southern Uplands.

One of Scotlands highest waterfalls at 60m and the 5th highest in Britain, the Tail Burn plunges from Loch Skeen over cascades and plunge pools into the Moffat Water Valley, which is a classic U shaped valley carved out by a huge glacier, leaving in its wake a wide floodplain through which runs Moffat Water.

The Loch itself is a glacial feature. Like Cwm Idwal in Snowdonia, it is situated within a "hanging valley" elevated 250m above the main valley carved out by a smaller less powerful "side chain" glacier.

The geology comprises layered sandstone (greywacke) and softer mudstone, erosion of which has created crevices between the sand stone ribs, which itself has been shaped by frost shattering. Together the varying resistances to erosion of these interlayered substrates have created a rugged, complex gorgescape as it engineered the dramatic aesthetics of the Tail Burns downward course.

The carven stone bowl or "corrie" which surrounds it rises as high as 821m. But these are no mere summits. They lead to high moorland plateaus on which one may find arctic alpine habitats and extensive bogs.

It is one of the best sites in South Scotland for upland plants and offers a tasty southern flavour of more traditionally Highland communities. There are a whole bunch of snazzy rare plants around the reserve associated with the shattered rock walls in the gorges (cleuchs) and base rich soils and I very much look forward to taking another look in May when Spriggan Mist are  back to play at The Lodge Arts Collective, when I intend to get deep in those bogs and find the oblong woodsia, which was subject of a successful reintroduction here.

For the ornithology fans in the room, you may find a wide range of birds including ring ouzel, osprey, red grouse, and peregrines.

The Loch contains the vendace; the UK's rarest fish. Mountain hares are another feature. Might even spot a golden eagle or mountain hare!

The Moffat Shale is particularly rich in fossils and I would have had a wee hunt had I known!

#ecology #biodiversity #botany #nature