Conservationists don masks for National Juniper Day

AN UNUSUAL campaign to restore juniper to its native Scotland is being spearheaded by a distiller, a higher education institute and a group of conservationists.

Workers at the Ayrshire Juniper Recovery Project gets into the spirit of things. Picture: Contributed

The Scottish Wildlife Trust and Scotland’s Rural College have formed an unlikely alliance with Hendrick’s Gin to highlight a programme aimed at preservingthe plant ahead of National Juniper Day tomorrow.

The three organisations have backed a project undertaken in Grey Hill Grasslands Nature Reserve of South Ayrshire, where the Ayrshire Juniper Recovery Project will take 750 cuttings of juniper from the site as part of the recovery effort.

Experts and volunteers at the AJRP donned masks to highlight the plant’s historic role as a deterrant against bubonic plague. Italian doctors would wear venetian masks filled with juniper berries in a bid to immunise themselves from the disease.