The Culduthel Woods Group has worked to take a small woodland within Inverness and make it into a new Community Wood of 16 acres. The innovative part of the story is that land was technically “ownerless” after the former owner, had dissolved their holding company. The Group worked to form a new Steering Group, a new charity, raise funds and local support, and then researched and navigated the complex legal process to claim the land. All this has taken nearly four years, working throughout the pandemic and meeting virtually. The opening event in July 2022 saw nearly 250 local residents celebrating with a fabulous Woodland Gathering.
The space concerned is close to the largest secondary school in the Highlands and within walking distance of four Primary schools. The Group felt it important to address the neglected area and were concerned about safety as trees were becoming dangerous, walls falling down, paths in poor state of repair, vandalism, etc.
The group had to commission lawyers to find out land history and ownership status. And then took advice from a wide range of advisory bodies plus lawyers to navigate way through the process of claiming land using the prescriptive claimants process. The work was supported financially by the Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE). This resulted finally in a set of deeds being obtained in May 2022 with provisional watermark which will be removed within 10 years if there is no legal challenge.
A tree survey was commissioned by them and they persuaded the Highland Council to address the 50 most dangerous tress. This was urgent work for the community but also cleared the way for the group to commit to take on the liabilities associated with owning and managing woods.
Support was developed through a public meeting and formation of a steering group. Then a big community consultation exercise assessed what people did or didn't like about the woods. Assistance was given by another local community woods group and funding granted by Scottish Forestry. Enough support was generated to form a new charity and then a consultation on the management plan attracted 250 comments. 95% of people supported the management proposals that had been developed. All the individual management proposals were supported by at least 80% of people - some found favour with 97% of people (e.g. we should manage woods to encourage more wildlife)
Experience has been shared though presentations at conference of the Community Woods Association, and the group has been commended by the Land Commission for Scotland who tweeted about their exemplary compliance with Land Rights and Responsibility statement.
The Group worked with Community Land Scotland on special national seminar on how to address ownerless land issues in Scotland as part of land reform agenda, and hosted a secondee intern from Community Woods Association for three months to work with on promoting community engagement, especially with young people.
Plans ahead include finalising the management plan, improving paths and developing a youth training scheme for local schools.