Dunnet Community Forest

Situated beside the Caithness coastline between thurso and John o’Groats is the most northerly community woodland on the British mainland, as outlined by Shona Scatchard, dunnet forestry trust treasurer:

Since last year, following a successful community buyout from natureScot, and with assistance from the Scottish land fund, dunnet forestry trust now own dunnet Community forest, which we aim to maintain as a community resource for relaxation, exercise and engagement with the natural environment. a large part of the work we undertake to achieve this consists of ensuring the maintenance and safety of our 15km path system. Providing the largest part of the finance for this is harvesting windthrown trees and processing them into various sizes of wood fuel. the forest was originally an experimental plantation on part of the dunnet links dune system and was comprised mostly of different areas of monoculture species, mainly Sitka spruce, lodgepole pine and Corsican pine. our long-term forest plan, as approved by natureScot, is to transform the forest into a much more open, mixed woodland with a larger variety of trees, including many more broadleaf species. transporting felled trees to work areas for further processing, pond clearance, chipping of brash, tree planting, and beating up to clear grass and weed growth to allow young trees to grow properly. early in 2022, a group of volunteers finished building a large roundhouse at the forest’s main entrance to serve as a meeting place and information point. anyone wanting to get involved can just come along to our Green Gym sessions or our monthly log sales. you can also get in touch by email or phone if you would like more information first and we can then give advice about what to wear and give health and safety advice.

We currently employ one part time forester and depend on a committed volunteer workforce to accomplish this vision. We run a regular weekly Green Gym on thursday mornings, and recently started a new one on Sundays too.

Since october 2021, thanks to financial support from two local windfarm funds, we have employed a part-time forest development officer, who set up the Sunday group and various other activities such as our Wildlife Watch group involving children in woodland activities, working with some secondary school pupils through a ‘developing the young Workforce’ project and various one-off events in the forest.

Plans for the coming year include the erection of two totem poles to replace old ones that had rotted, the refurbishment and extension of a children’s play area, and perhaps the start of work on the erection of a polycrub and larger nursery to allow us to grow our own trees from seed, and possibly even install a compost toilet.

Phone: 07858 058 800 at our Green Gyms the typical activities include path and bridge maintenance,