A Celtic Rainforest

The Celtic Rainforest

is a Plantlife Scotland project raising awareness

of the international importance of these forests

and unlocking the secrets

of the unique species that dwell within them.

The Celtic Rainforests of Scotland,

also known as Atlantic woodlands,

form part of the wider

western Atlantic woodlands of the UK.

They are a habitat known as ‘temperate rainforest’. Temperate rainforest is a rare habitat worldwide

 - rarer even than tropical rainforests!

These mainly coastal forests

have a special 'oceanic' climate,

which is very wet and mild, due to landscape

and warm ocean currents.

The combination of high rainfall

and stable mild temperature

makes the woodlands very humid

which allows for the growth

of some really special residents –

the lichen, mosses and liverworts, fungi and ferns.

It is these species

that really make the Celtic Rainforests

what they are.

Not only do they help maintain the humidity

in the forest

but they also give the forests

that mysterious and magical feel.

  meetimg some of these forest residents along the way.

Beyond Britain and Ireland coastal temperate rainforests, like our Celtic Rainforest,

are found mainly in the redwood forests

of western North America, the beech forests of western Chile, in south-east Australia, New Zealand,

south-western Japan and Taiwan.

In Scotland they are mainly situated

along the west coast.