About Us
Community Woodland Project
Hazelbank Woods
At Strathdearn Community Developments (SCD), we’re excited to announce that, following our successful acquisition of funding from the Scottish Land Fund in November 2023, we have now completed the purchase of the first 18.5 hectares of Hazelbank Woods.
We are also confident that the remaining 2.67 hectares will be acquired shortly from Tomatin Estate such that the entire woodland will be brought into community ownership.
At this time, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the sellers, the MacPherson family, for their generosity in transferring ownership of the land to the community.
We are also hugely thankful to Mr and Mrs Fleming of Kyllachy Estate who have demonstrated incredible generosity in waiving for no value, for the benefit of the community, certain pre-emption rights over the land, such that this transaction has been able to proceed. Mr and Mrs Fleming only became aware of the proposed transaction when they read about it in the Strathdearn newsletter.
Whilst land transactions are rarely straight forward, or fast to conclude, we are hugely thankful to all parties for the goodwill, patience and efforts they have exerted to help us reach this point. The contributions made by all parties truly reflect a shared commitment to our community’s wellbeing.
We wish to again thank the Scottish Land Fund for their support and also to express our deep appreciation to Macleod & MacCallum and Shepherd & Wedderburn for their legal support to SCD.
Chair of Strathdearn Community Developments Steven Knott said: “We’re thrilled to be in a position to take ownership of Hazelbank Woods on behalf of the community. This marks a significant milestone towards meeting the objectives set for us, by the community, in our Community Action Plan.
“While projects like this often take time, we are deeply grateful for the support of the Scottish Land Fund, and the goodwill of all parties to the transaction. We also extend our thanks to the community for its patience throughout this process. We’re excited to take over stewardship of the woods for the benefit of our community and look forward to celebrating this significant achievement with them.”