A series of steep red mounds rise dramatically from the rolling landscape of West Lothian, between Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland. The bings, as they are known locally, are the legacy of the oil shale industry of the 19th century.

This landscape was once written off as lifeless waste. But over time, Nature has arrived on the spoil heaps in unfamiliar ways.

Natural birch woodland and wild flowers push up through the rose-tinted gravel. Orchids including early purple (Orchis mascula) and broad-leaved helleborine (Epipactis helleborine) appear on the slopes, and mosses ...

 

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