Over 1,500 wildfires have taken place in Scotland over the last 10 years, the Scottish Conservatives can reveal today.
The “alarming” new figures were uncovered in Freedom of Information requests by the party, with almost 600 of the wildfires occurring in the Highlands. The number of wildfires has tripled over the last year with 187 fires in 2025 so far, compared to 55 in 2024.
Earlier this week Scottish Land and Estates said the fires that burned in the Highlands last month were the biggest that Scotland has ever seen.
Shadow rural affairs secretary Tim Eagle hit out at SNP agriculture minister Jim Fairlie for taking almost three weeks to visit the affected sites before he did so on Thursday and added these figures must be an urgent wake up call for SNP ministers to rethink their approach to tackling wildfires.
Pressure from the Scottish Conservatives and rural groups including SLE, NFUS, the Scottish Gamekeepers Association and BASC recently forced SNP ministers to delay the introduction of their new muirburn licensing scheme until January next year.
However, Tim Eagle says that muirburn practices have been used for generations to control wildfires and it is just “common sense” that the process for doing so should be as easy as possible for land managers when fires break out.
He added that rural Scotland, including his Highlands and Islands region, must not be harmed any further from “misguided” SNP legislation and that their licensing scheme does not increase the threat of wildfires facing these areas.
Scottish Conservative shadow cabinet secretary for rural affairs Tim Eagle MSP said: “This alarming rise in wildfire numbers raises significant concern about the growing threat they are posing to rural Scotland in particular.
“Areas like the Highlands are already facing huge challenges but are now having to brace themselves every time there is a spell of good weather. The recent wildfires we saw across the Highlands had a devastating impact across our landscape.
“Frankly it was disgraceful that it took almost three weeks for SNP minister Jim Fairlie to come and visit the affected areas. Those living and working here wonder if it would have taken him as long if such an incident had occurred in the central belt.
“These figures need to be an urgent wake up call for ministers like him to change their approach. While it was welcome that the SNP’s muirburn licensing scheme was delayed until the start of the new year, many are still rightly concerned about what it will mean in practice.
“These practices have been used for generations and it is just common sense that putting it into practice should be as easy as possible when fires start to burn.
“John Swinney must guarantee that rural Scotland won’t be harmed further by misguided legislation and that the SNP’s actions do not increase the threat these communities are increasingly facing from wildfires.”
Notes
In the last 10 years there have been over 1,500 wildfires in Scotland. As of 28 May 2025 there had been 1,574 wildfires in Scotland since 2015. A third of those, 574, have been recorded in the Highlands. (Scottish Conservative FOI, 25 June 2025, available on request).
The number of wildfires has more than tripled in the last year. In 2025 alone there have been 187 wildfires recorded in Scotland, more than triple the 55 recorded in 2024. The 2025 figures are currently the highest figure recorded in Scotland across the last 10 years, except for the 192 recorded in 2017. (Scottish Conservative FOI, 25 June 2025, available on request).
Muirburn practices have been used for generations to prevent wildfires. Muirburn, the controlled burning of moorland vegetation between September and March, is conducted for the management of moorland game and wildlife. It is also a long-standing practice used to prevent wildfires as it creates a break in the land. (The Scotsman, 21 June 2025, link).
The Scottish Conservatives voted against the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 which introduced a licencing scheme for muirburn activities which was due to start in September this year. The proposals raised widespread concern amongst the rural sector who warned that if the scheme was in place before the start of the 2025-26 muirburn season it would have created unworkable conditions and significantly increased the wildfire risk. Various rural groups including SLE, NFUS, the Scottish Gamekeepers Association and BASC called on ministers to create a more realistic timetable on muirburn licensing. The Scottish Government have delayed this until January 2026. (The Scotsman, 21 June 2025, link).
SFRS said that muirburn is an effective tool for wildfire management. SFRS wildfire chief Michael Humphries said firefighters are trained on ‘back burning’ when it comes to wildfire prevention which he said is essentially the same. (The Scotsman, 21 June 2025, link).