Barley Lake above Glengarriff was very likely surrounded by native rainforest up until around the early 18th century, only 300 years ago. Yet most people still believe such scenes are 'wild' and 'natural', rather than the sheep-shagged artificial deserts they truly are.🌏

I was a little shocked when I went to the Scottish Highlands that people think that's what it's supposed to look like.

I lived in New Zealand 10 years ago and there were many mountains in a similar climate and of similar height to ours here, but they were densely forested. Back then I wasn’t as aware of the level of deforestation here, but it struck me that maybe that’s what Ireland was meant to look like.