Arran Brown

[Jack Harrison]

Arran Brown’s status has always been a puzzle. I seem to recall that after the initial finds a little over 200 years ago, specimens were reputed to have been caught during the mid 20th century at some remote location on Rannoch Moor, central Scotland.

I travelled by train on Monday 20th October across Rannoch Moor on the Fort William to Glasgow line. It really is a marvellous wilderness but I was surprised by the numbers of natural (not forestry) trees even on the higher ground. For example, Rannoch Station area was surprisingly well tree-covered.

My thoughts about Arran Brown’s possible occurrence in the Highlands of course aren’t new. But if they really do occur in remote areas, then they would be almost impossible to locate: a painstaking dedicated search would be needed. Even so a negative result would still make it unreasonable to say with certainty that Arran Brown is definitely absent from the British Isles.

Jack