2 • The Kilchoan Initiative
“We aspire to create here a centre of learning, study and enlightenment that will be an enduring legacy for future generations”.
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Salen
Ardtomish
Salen
Isle of Mull
OBAN IONA Carsaig
KILCHOAN
Kilmartin
Lochgilphead
SCOTLAND Oban Edinburgh Glasgow
4 • The Kilchoan Initiative
The Kilchoan Initiative
K
ilchoan Estate is the home of a cultural and educational initiative that seeks to contribute to the challenge of reconciling conservation and sustainability in nature with the consequences of mankind’s race for improved conditions for billions of people. The estate is a geographic place, occupied and farmed for centuries, with an interesting history and an atmosphere that is spiritual in the widest sense. We aspire to create here a centre of learning, study and enlightenment that will be an enduring legacy for future generations. Humanity is benefiting from remarkable changes that have enormously improved our quality of life and prospects. Parts of the world that were historically poor and treated as backward are quickly catching up. Much of this progress can be attributed to the development of ideas having their origins in the Scottish Enlightenment, thinking that ushered in a new era of improved conditions for ordinary people all over the world.
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Kilchoan Estate is a cultural and educational enterprise in rewilding, preservation and sustainability for the benefit of the people of Argyll and the world.
Kilchoan is not only a geographic place, occupied and farmed for centuries, but also aims to be a concept and a centre of learning, study and enlightenment.
The era we live in now has brought its own challenges. Sustainability and old age seem to be among the most pressing. How can we make development compatible with a cleaner, healthier environment? Can we repair the damage we have brought upon our habitat? Urbanisation has
3 • The Kilchoan Initiative
The Kilchoan Initiative must leave an enduring legacy for this and future generations.
Kilchoan is spiritual in the widest sense; essentially Christian but ecumenical too and open to all.
Our aim is to become a respected, admired and loved member of the Community.
This photograph of one of the lochs on Kilchoan Estate illustrates the drama of deforestation and overexploitation
been central to raising living standards: how can we avoid losing our vital connections with the beauty and marvels of nature? What meaning has life when it extends beyond the span of a healthy mind? How can we confront the intergenerational debt burdening the young in some societies?
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Francis Hutcheson
David Hume
Adam Smith
The Kilchoan Initiative will provide an opportunity to reflect on these issues in an atmosphere conducive to enthusing people about the current challenges that humanity must confront. We are optimistic that by embracing the ideas that were developed in Scotland in the 18th century, by thinkers like Francis Hutcheson, David Hume and Adam Smith, younger generations will find it in themselves to confront the fundamental issues that mankind has always faced, to apply thought and imagination to the existential issues that define our times. It is our hope that by reconnecting with our condition as creatures created by God and endowed with freedom, intelligence, willpower and the capacity to love, and by developing a closer relationship with our natural world, we may make a modest contribution to the advancement of the human condition.
5 • The Kilchoan Initiative
As the largest and longestlived tree in the Caledonian Forest, the Scots pine is a keystone species in the ecosystem, forming the ‘backbone’ on which many other species depend. treesforlife.org.uk The Kilchoan Initiative • 9
7 • The Kilchoan Initiative
How can we make development compatible with a cleaner, healthier environment? Can we repair the damage we have brought upon our habitat?
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Governance The Kilchoan Iniciative is leaded by a Board of three Directors and a Factor that lives on the Estate.
Jon Strickland – Chairman of the Board Edward Pickard – Director Nicolas Ibanez Scott – Director Mark Atkinson – Factor
9 • The Kilchoan Initiative
St. Comghan’s Chapel at Kilchoan Estate. The Kilchoan Initiative • 10