Swathes of Cairngorms unrecognisable after 12 days of ‘cataclysmic’ wildfires

With large areas still burning, damage from national park’s worst blaze could take decades, if not longer, to put right

It is the jewel in the crown of the Highlands, one of Scotland’s most impressive natural landscapes, but 12 days on from the start of an enormous wildfire that is tearing through moorland and forest, the Cairngorms national park is unrecognisable.

Hectares of blackened land were visible as low cloud cleared on Sunday, with smoke billowing into the air from large areas still ablaze. In the evening, the sky glowed an eerie orange.

Authorities have warned the danger is far from over in what has been described as the worst fire the Cairngorms has ever seen. It will be weeks, if not months, before the blaze is fully extinguished but emergency services are hoping they can stop it spreading much further. The damage so far has been significant and it will take decades to put right.

Flames have claimed areas of the Caledonian pinewood forest, which contains Scots pine trees 300 years old, but most of the older forest has been saved by fire breaks urgently bulldozed into the land in the early days of the fire.

“For rare habitat loss, it really is a challenge,” says Ian Allsopp, the Forestry and Land Scotland planning manager for the north region, saying larger animals, such as deer, would have escaped but smaller mammals, lizards, insects and ground-nesting birds would have perished.

Grant Moir, the chief executive of the Cairngorms national park, told the Guardian it was the worst fire the park had seen. “The fact that this is right in the centre of the Cairngorms, in the actual Cairngorm mountains and Abernethy – it is such a precious place,” he says.

A national park bylaw was introduced in April, banning campfires and barbecues over the summer to help reduce ignition points. It is still unknown what caused this fire but the vast majority of UK wildfires have a human origin and can be something as small as a discarded cigarette or abandoned glass bottle.

Police Scotland said on Saturday night it was no longer treating the fire as a major incident. However, anxiety is still high, particularly among local people who were told it was “contained” last week, only for strong winds to fan the flames, leading to the evacuation of Nethy Bridge village on Friday night.

Residents have been told they can return home. Inside Nethy Bridge community centre, which is being used as a makeshift base for the emergency services, a long table against a wall is groaning under the weight of donated food, while the fire service, police and volunteers bustle around, many looking exhausted.

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking,” says Sandy McCook, a retired press photographer from the village. “The flames on Friday were cataclysmic.”

He is angry too. Many locals feel the fire could have been prevented. McCook shows the Guardian a photo he took of the wildfire when it was only the size of a tennis court.

“Had we had a helicopter there on government contract to deal with such incidents, that fire could have been dealt with within two hours of it being reported,” he says. He wants to see a model similar to the Scottish air ambulance, with a specialist firefighting helicopter and crew able to scramble to tackle hard-to-reach fires, and he is not the only one.

Three private helicopters have been contracted to provide assistance in the Cairngorms, depositing approximately 750,000 litres of water a day on wildfire hotspots, something that is essential to getting the blaze under control. Allsopp says it was “so lucky” the helicopter companies were able to assist in water-bombing what he says was an “inferno”.

The Cairngorms area is an “extremely challenging landscape”, including steep mountains and forest, “access is so difficult, you just can’t get people up here”.

On Monday, the Scottish Green party called for publicly available firefighting aircraft during the wildfire season, saying Scotland “cannot continue to rely on a patchwork of private operators and borrowed resources”.

It came after the UK government offered military support on Sunday but said it had no access to specialist firefighting helicopters requested by the Scottish government.

Firefighters said an “intensive operation” was still under way but better weather conditions, including heavy rain and low winds, had slowed the fire and limited its spread. More than 75 firefighters remained at the scene, the Scottish fire and rescue service said on Sunday.

Light rain has brought some relief but everyone on the ground is anxious in the face of more dry weather to come. “Wet weather is not enough to put out the fire on its own,” says Allsopp. It requires helicopter water-bombing “for days and days and days” to contain it.

The operation is a massive coordinated effort between Forestry and Land Scotland, the national park authority, the police, fire service, RSPB, Highland Council and other partners, with assistance being offered from the Scottish and UK governments.

Allsopp says each organisation has worked well together, pooled skills and knowledge, and helped each other out. “Even our accountants are here, running errands and getting water and sun cream for people,” he said. “At times, it has been completely overwhelming and we’ve been struggling to keep up. It feels like a war strategy.”