Hi All

I'm very new to gardening - keen but inexperienced and looking for
advice. Last year we moved into a cottage in the highlands - it hasn't
really been lived in for any significant time in the past 50 years,
and as you can imagine it is quite wild. Wild is good, don't get me
wrong, but there are areas where it would be nice to tame it a little
and have some grassy areas.

These areas are a little bit uneven so need to be levelled. I'm happy
to hire a mini excavator or get someone in to level these areas, but I
am unsure what to do next. In their current state these areas have
developed into rank grassland - lots of dead material and long grasses
tgether with other plants like pignut.

Can ayone advise? Should I be laying turf or taking the surface layer
off and seeding, or am I missing anything else.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Ben