Wildlife thrives in extensive wetlands with lochs, rivers and marshes.  The RSPB’s Ken-Dee Marshes reserve on Loch Ken is a couple of miles from Rose Haugh.  Ospreys fish in many of the local lochs and they nest on the National Trust for Scotland’s nearby Threave Estate.

The Solway coast hosts huge flocks of over-wintering geese - barnacle geese seen here are grazing on the RSPB’S Mersehead Reserve.  Coastal reed beds attract visiting winter ducks, and starlings wheel in to roost at dusk.

Red kite country. Recently introduced here, as in many other parts of the UK, red kites breed in the mature woodlands of inland Galloway, which are carpeted with blue-bells in May.  This kite carving is at Mossdale on the Galloway Kite Trail.  Dozens of kites soar over Rose Haugh itself.  And golden eagles patrol nearby moorlands.