Tayside Bat Group
A closer look at one of the project graveyards: Hill Kirk, Blairgowrie
The Hill Kirk is an 19th century church on an early medieval site within a disused graveyard which was largely unmaintained during the time of the project.
A large area of mature deciduous woodland runs along the side of the church and graveyard and connects to the River Ericht, and houses and gardens lie to the south and west side of the graveyard. The Cuttle Burn runs down the side of the woodland next to the church and graveyard, and the River Ericht runs 100 metres to the east, so the surrounding habitat is excellent. There is very little light pollution entering the graveyard due to the mature trees surrounding the graveyard.
The surveys showed all five species found in Tayside to be present in the lower graveyard. No pipistrelle maternity roosts were found on the site, but it was suspected that there is one close by because a great many bats were seen flying into the graveyard from the houses to the west.
The pipistrelles foraged mainly in the lower graveyard around the mature trees on the edge of the graveyard. Brown long eared bats and Daubenton’s bats were detected foraging in the lower graveyard, and a significant number of passes were detected from Natterer’s bats throughout the night, indicating this graveyard is an important foraging ground for this rare bat.
In addition, observations on the surveys indicate that there is a strong possibility the church is being used as a roost by either a brown long eared or Natterer's bat.
After the project
A report was sent to the local graveyard managers outlining the project and then a section specific to each graveyard on how to protect and improve their graveyards for the local bat populations.
In the spring of 2019 through the local facebook page Jean came across a plan for locals getting together to “clean up” the Hill Kirk. Some locals were offended by the wild look of the graveyard and the local genealogy group were unable to send visitors to the graveyard to look at graves of their ancestors because it was so overgrown.
Fearing well-meaning people would come along and strim to death the precious lower graveyard (Plate 6) where all five species of bats found in Tayside are found, Jean got involved and worked out a deal where
with the different groups where she cleaned and mapped the gravestones and they agreed to leave the majority of the ground in the lower graveyard untouched. She even located some lost interment records, which made the geneaology people very happy.
The very knowledgeable members of the British Lichen Society were invited to visit and survey the lichens (Plate 7) and they recorded over 80 different species – unfortunately in terms of lichen surveys its not that unusual but it was a very interesting few hours following them around.
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As it turned out the graves are all located around the outside, so a path was designed to visit all the graves while leaving the long grass in the centre of the graveyard, and the happy strimmers will be restricted to this path only, leaving the rest of the graveyard to the wildlife.
Tayside Bat Group funded a sign to explain to visitors the value of this wild area and how it supports the bat population, and we now have many other local groups involved, including high school pupils working towards their John Muir Award who are helping put out stones to mark the edges of the path and paint them.
It is a great example of how local interest groups can all work together and create a solution that everyone is happy with :)
