The lattice sites, valence states, resulting magnetic behaviour and spin–lattice relaxation of Fe ions in GaN and AlN were investigated by emission Mössbauer spectroscopy following the implantation of radioactive 57Mn+ ions at ISOLDE/CERN. Angle dependent measurements performed at room temperature on the 14.4 keV γ-rays from the 57Fe Mössbauer state (populated from the 57Mn β− decay) reveal that the majority of the Fe ions are in the 2+ valence state nearly substituting the Ga and Al cations, and/or associated with vacancy type defects. Emission Mössbauer spectroscopy experiments conducted over a temperature range of 100–800 K show the presence of magnetically split sextets in the “wings” of the spectra for both materials. The temperature dependence of the sextets relates these spectral features to paramagnetic Fe3+ with rather slow spin–lattice relaxation rates which follow a T2 temperature …