A Puffin Reckoning

 

A Reckoning:
the Puffins' warning

There is a wolf who will call

The Puffin Army from the sea.

They will come,

On 100;1,000;10,000 marching feet,

With beating wings

And clacking beaks.

 

Warrior Puffin!

Recently, our Last Wolf Project met people at public events in Forres and Elgin Libraries and Nairn and Inverness Museums.

These were exciting days.  We started with wolves but ideas spiralled out from there…which animals mattered to our visitors?

 

That is what The Last Wolf Project has been asking people to look at: the step back from discussions and arguments and consider: is there an animal whose loss would leave you feeling diminished? Who would you miss?

 

singing wolves

The results were not always predictable. There were wolves, and deer and rabbits. There were horses and mice and bears

And then there were the puffins and with the puffins a whole storyline unfolded, a history, and a warning untold before….

 

Through the air, and

Over the waves, and

Across the sand,

They will come.

Marching.

Marching.

Beating the rhythm of a changing world,

In ten thousand stamping feet.

Along your streets,

Into your gardens,

Staring in,

Through your windows

Bright, dark eyes,

Watching.
Accusing.

watch for the wolves....

• With many thanks to all our artists and to Elgin Library, Forres Library, Nairn Museum and 
• Inverness Museum and Art Gallery
• And a big, puffin-shaped, wolf-calling thank you to my colleague Alice Vawdrey for her help on those events

The Extinction Files

 Badgers, Bees and Owls
The Extinction Files of Ruth Evans

What animals do you value?

Which ones matter to you?

Beyond ecological relevance, environmental impact, rarity. Beyond the fact that you can meet them in your garden or in the park daily or watch them on a screen….just stop and think…just stop and feel. All those considerations may be part of the process but is there an animal that feels just right for you: one that sits close to your heart?

 

That is what The Last Wolf Project has been asking people to look at: the step back from discussions and arguments and consider: is there an animal whose loss would leave you feeling diminished? Who would you miss?

 

We might talk about spirit animals or totems but again this is simpler than that: without spiritual labelling, what animals matter to you on a deeply personal level? 

 

Artist Ruth Evans explores similar ideas in her Extinction Files series, creating pictures where human and animal are woven together capturing a sense of the bonds between us.

“The natural world we inhabit is always under attack. My paintings are a part of this struggle -hopefully portraying connections between us and the earth and all its creatures – rooted and unrooted. Whatever grows will die, or is blown in the wind to become a flightpath for the imagination where something emerges that ultimately carries spiritual and mental peace”

 

Visit Ruth’s website or find her on Instagram to step into these rich images

Cabinet doors creak open

 

More doors open
Or they open more widely or.... 

there is something in the cupboard…..

Back in the spring of 2026, I was working on a project called the Cabinet of Treasures, exploring the lost, forgotten and completely spurious histories of Glossop and other towns in the High Peak of Derbyshire

Part of the Derbyshire Makes initiative, we were encouraging people to look at the landscapes around them and remember old family stories or create new ones. Out of this has grown a wonerful set of cupboard to open and explore….it has taken a long time to get this (sort of) finished…there isomer to come and the stores that go with the individual elements of the Cabinets to finish curating…but we’re nearly there now

So below are images from the Cabinets being opened….hopefully they will be available for cupboard-rummages and shelf-seekers to Glossop to investigate for themselves shortly

With many thanks to all our artists and to Glossop Library, Hayfield Library, Gamesley Library, Glossop Arts Project, High Peak Community Arts and more….

opening the door

looking insie

pointing the way

a very tall gentleman

The Tree Cabinet

The Mill Cabinet

The Mouselow Castle Cabinet

assembling the insides

Life as a wolf

 Life as a Wolf
Dundreggan Project Wolf

In 2016 and 2017 at Trees for Life, Dundreggan, a remarkable project invited small groups of people to spend a month at a time as wolfpack, watching, prowling, patrolling the woods to keep the deer away from new saplings

 

As part of encouraging wider participation in The Last Wolf project, we’re featuring exciting artwork and projects from other people that draw upon ideas about the connections between people and the world around us. This is the first of those posts. Here, in the woods of Dundreggan, from whence we have lost our wolves, there was a fascinating experiment inviting humans to explore a wolf's way of being…..

A visiting Sami singer blessed the Wolf Den where the humandwolves rested during their prowlings with a joik: https://youtu.be/0gSomkEpnLM?si=rYJIaODHpIpB55T2

and Alan Watson Featherstone, the founder of Trees for Life, wrote about meeting the wolves: https://alanwatsonfeatherstone.com/a-night-with-the-wolves/

 

Conceived by Doug Gilbert, the manager of Dundreggan at the time, the humandwolves project was challenging and inspiring and regrettably shortlived! It created fascinating insights into how humans connect to natural spaces and other species….

 

For The Last Wolf, it offers us some wonderful reflections from the humandwolves about just being so immersed in a landscape and a role within a habitat. 

 

If these people were humandwolves – what would you choose to be?

 

Poet Alec Finlay gathered responses to a questionnaire from the participants and out of that grew the poem below

 

See more about Alec’s work here: https://petrichormag.com/current-issue/

 

And the full text of the poem is here: https://petrichormag.com/22-alec-finlay/

 

 

I was a humandwolf

I felt very natural
        very human
          on my nights as a wolf

          walking the routes
          as tracker and hunter

           connected to the land

              with favorite places for sleeping

                and spots to watch from

                  waiting by the tree-line at dusk

                   content to be silent

                                becoming part of the wood

                                    familiar with nooks
                                      and crannies

                                    patterns of growth
                                      and decay

I felt safe in the woods
   with an underlying awareness
      I had a purpose

                                  when I’m out there
                                  I want for nothing
                                                                   (except maybe dry socks)

                                                                   when I’m back home
                                                                   I want more than anything
                                                                   to go back.

 

 

(II)

looking for signs
                                                                        hoof-
                                                                        prints

                                 scat

                                                    hair
in the dark
                                                                                             trails
                                           head-
                                        torches

                                                                  sniffing the air for
                                                                  the musty order

                                              bright reflections
                                         of cornea

your senses pick out

                                                                       faint smell
                                                                       of something
                                                                       that just passed

(III)

 

while being a wolf
I dreamt of deer
and the moon

                                       because of the dreamlike nature
                                       of the nights by night
                                       the veil becomes thinner
                                       lucid dreaming easier

 

 

This poem is composed from answers to a questionnaire completed by ‘humandwolves – individuals who volunteered to join one of the four wolf packs, in 2016 and 2017, at Trees for Life, Dundreggan. Each pack spent one month as a ‘humandwolf’, warding deer from saplings.

Project Wolf was conceived by Douglas Gilbert of Trees for Life

The Humandwolves:
Martina Baltkalne
Millie Barrett
Nick Belt
Lotte Brockbank
Liv Glatt
Claire Large
Matt McMullen
Lorna Meek
Chanel Valento-Bovell
Alex Volkers

All photos by Mhairi Law for Alec Finlay's Humandwolf Project, 2017 

 

Public events in Moray and Inverness

 The Last Wolf

free public events

October 2026

Tuesday 13^th Lost animals and wonderful places

·      Elgin Library, Crooker Park, Elgin, IV30 1HS, 11:00 - 16:00

https://fb.me/e/6D4SUiEcO

Wednesday 14^th, The Last Wolf and Other Lost animals 

·      Inverness Museum, IV2 3EB 10:30 - 15:30

https://fb.me/e/bEUBvAzp9

make your own folded animal

Thursday 15th, Lost animals and wonderful places

• Nairn Museum, Viewfield House, Viewfield Drive, Nairn, IV12 4EE
•     10:30 - 15:30
• https://fb.me/e/4xa9CuTKt

Friday 16^th: Lost animals and wonderful places

·      Forres Library, House Community Centre, High St, Forres, IV36 1BU, 10:30-  13:30

https://fb.me/e/9PBxXMaEf

What's all this about?

There are “last wolf” accounts found all over the UK. From full scale dramatic descriptions to a single sentence in a history book, we have noted the departure of this iconic predator. Accounts are almost always congratulatory which might reflect the impact wolves had - or were accused of having – or might have had - on local communities. Rarely is there any thought of what the bigger consequences of losing wolves might mean.

The Last Wolf project coincides with Caroline Bury's Ghosts in the Wood exhibition at Løre Gallery in Forres and sets out to encourage us to pause, reflect and be creative about how we feel about this changing world, about the animals we've lost, the ones we might be losing - and the ones that are coming back whether we like it or not! And its not just animals - if you're into plants, you could think about Ash Dieback and Sudden Larch Death.

Find out more about the whole project here: https://creepingtoad.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-last-wolf.html

Explore those changing landscapes of plants and animals in Scotland. A good starting point is to visit the Nature Champions website for more information and more species and habitats to think about!

where would you like to meet your animal?

Planning Public Events

With funding from the Pebble Trust, we are arranging public events and sessions in local schools.Make your own animal model and a pop-up landscape of the place where you would like to meet your wolf, frog, wild horse, mouse, eagle….

(and many thanks to Moray Council and Inverness Museum for their support!)

Details

These events are

·      free

·      no booking or tickets needed: just drop-by and join in

·      young people under 12 need to bring a grown-up with them

·      allow 45 minutes for the activity

·      Find out more: @creeping toad

·      https:// creepingtoad.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-last-wolf.html