The purple heathered hills are awash with flowers at the moment ☺️Calluna vulgaris is the most common heather species found on the #isleofman but you can also see bell heather and cross-leaved heath 💜

Bog Asphodel flowers are turning from yellow to orange as they fruit, but they still look beautiful ☺️ They grow in wet, acidic conditions and were once thought to cause brittle bones in livestock. The plants can cause problems for lambs, however they don't usually eat them🐏

Some more before and after photos. The first two show a large peat pipe which was reprofiled last winter. The second two photos show a peat hag which was reprofiled just before a large storm, which caused some damage, but it is now looking lovely and green🌿 ☺️

Invertebrates are an important source of food for upland birds 🦟🐦 Craneflies and midges are most common, but the warm weather has brought out the flying ants. Unfortunately these ones have landed in a #peaty pool 😬

Cutting #peat for fuel has left some areas of the hills with bare, eroding peat. In these places the first step is to slow the flow of water 💦 which we have done here with coir logs. We are currently trialling growing our own moss to use on this site 🌿😊

A magical moment 😍 when the newly created pools are visited by a dragonfly 🐉 laying it's eggs. The restoration of wet areas within #peatlands benefits wildlife, carbon storage and drought resilience 😁

Damming small drainage ditches can have an immediate effect. What was once an area of dried out bare #peat is now a small upland pool. This will keep the surrounding peat wet and create habitat for invertebrates and birds 🐦See the last three photos to see the pool infilling 😊

We've been impressed by how much vegetation has established on reprofiled #peat hags, however some places need a helping hand 👇 This hag had areas where the peat was still bare, so we've transplanted some small plugs 🌿 from the adjacent hillside 😊

This gorgeous, glowing mushroom was found growing among the #sphagnum 😍 It's amazing what you can find when you look closely 👀

Find out about the depth and extent of upland #peat on the Isle of Man by viewing our new interactive peatland map 😁 You can also view photographs 📸 of restoration areas, at fixed points, which will show changes over time. Visit our website manxpeat.org/map

This site is one of the few places on the Island where fir clubmoss can be easily found🧐Here it was found clinging to the overhanging edge of a peat hag💪These plants reproduce by spores, like mosses, but are part of a group of vascular plants that are 400 million years old💚

It was great to be joined on Friday by Gareth from conservefor.co.uk 😊 We had a look at some of our #peatland sites and discussed different restoration methods. Gareth has many years of experience in this type of work and was happy to share his ideas while on the Island 👍

Yesterday we made the most of the beautiful weather 😆 to show #Tynwald members around our Beinn-y-Phott site. Despite the typical 'bog' conditions 💨💦 we were able to look at the work that's been done to reprofile and revegetate eroding peat hags and slow the flow of water 😊

This piece of wood, likely hawthorn🌳 was found at the base of a #peat hag on Snaefell. Wet, acidic peat can preserve materials for a very long time and it's likely this wood has been buried for THOUSANDS of years 😮

Peat pipes can sometimes be seen emerging from peat hags, like this one on Snaefell. These underground channels form as water 💦 passes through cracks in the peat, slowly eroding the peat around it. Sometimes the roof collapses to form a hole 😱 This one was nearly a metre deep!

Another guided walk in fabulous conditions 😂, this time for delegates at the Inter-island Environment Meeting #IIEM25 . We saw nothing of the surrounding hills 💚 but saw enough #peatland restoration, interesting fungi, mist and #sphagnum moss to keep everyone happy 💦🌿

Just over ten years ago a landslide occurred😢 likely due to the presence of #peat pipes💦 A site visit today showed how the area is starting to fix itself💚 #Sphagnum has grown around these tussocks, giving an insight as to how peatlands can start to develop after disturbance😊

What was once an eroding water channel is now a series of small pools 😀 Simple measures like installing these coir logs can slow the flow of water, reduce erosion and create small pools to benefit wildlife 🐦🦋

One of the best things about Autumn is the gorgeous colours 😍 This is the time of year where #sphagnum mosses become more vibrant and really stand out amongst other #peatland vegetation 💚 Cotton grass turns autumnal red and cladonia lichen adds a splash of white 😁

Peat and whisky have a long association🥃 As the importance of protecting and restoring peatlands is now recognised💚 the Manx Whisky Company create their delicious whisky without the use of peat, using other ways of creating flavours😋 It was great to show them around our site!