Native pinewoods, or Caledonian pinewoods, are Scotland’s most iconic woodlands, providing a critical habitat for a wide range of species. The native pinewoods of Scotland are the westernmost extension of the boreal forest, the conifer-dominated forest that occurs all around the northern hemisphere. They are unique and distinctive from the Scots pine woodlands that occur elsewhere in Europe and northern Asia, because of the absence of other types of large conifer trees in them. Many Caledonian pine forests have more varied canopies with birch, rowan, willow, aspen and juniper but they are dominated by the iconic, long-lived Scots pines.

Native pinewoods are ecological communities composed not just of trees, but of a wide range of organisms, from fungi and invertebrates to flowering plants, birds and mammals, all of which interact with, and are dependent on, other parts of the ecosystem. The pines themselves provide a dynamic living habitat for many species, such as the lichens that grow on their trunks and the birds that nest in their canopies.  The specialist species of the Caledonian pinewood are synonymous with the Scottish countryside; many of them rely on this unique habitat. Birds such as black grouse, capercaillie and crested tit flourish in this habitat, as do plants like wintergreens, twinflower and lesser twayblade and rare fungi like the blue tooth fungus. 

Native pinewoods on 84 sites in the north and west of Scotland are detailed in the Caledonian Pinewood Inventory produced in 1998 by Forestry Commission Scotland (now Scottish Forestry). The combined area of these sites is estimated at 18,000 hectares, but the bulk of that is contained in a relatively small number of locations, where the larger pinewood areas are found. Some of the better known and larger sites include Beinn Eighe; Glen Affric; Glen Strathfarrar; the Black Wood of Rannoch; and those in the Cairngorms National Park, such as Rothiemurchus, Glenmore, Abernethy, Glenfeshie, Mar Lodge and Glen Tanar. But many of the smaller sites contain fewer than 100 mature trees, and some are remote and difficult to access. An unknown number of Caledonian pinewood fragments, ranging from scattered trees to small woodlands, have not yet been verified or officially mapped and urgent work to undertake this is being led by Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland. Until this work is completed, there is every chance that these fragments will continue to decline, unrecognised.