Selling land to the community at Tayvallich

We are delighted to share that we have completed the sale, at cost, of Turbiskill Farmhouse and land (19 hectares) at Tayvallich to the local community body, Tayvallich Initiative. This sale brings a second house into community ownership with long-term letting.

We hope that land sale to communities will be a key part of our model, and it is hugely encouraging to have completed this sale within the same year as our purchase of the Tayvallich Estate. Where there is demand for community ownership of land we want to fulfil this part of our community prosperity aim, by empowering the community to own their own land.

Six months ago, with the Tayvallich Initiative, we developed and signed a first-of-kind land management Memorandum of Understanding and published a Community Engagement Roadmap that has formed the basis of our approach. This Highlands Rewilding – Tayvallich Initiative model was recently highlighted by the Scottish Land Commission and used as a case study within their guidance on community benefits from Scotland’s changing land use.

The current focuses of Tayvallich Initiative for the community-owned land are to progress applications for planning consent to build housing for affordable rent and create opportunities for properties with rural housing burdens; the land will also be sensitively managed and there are hopes for renewables options too.

Turbiskill (in the middleground)

If you would like to find out more about Highlands Rewildings work to empower communities, head to our communities page. We have also recently begun an 18 month Community Joint Venture project, across all three Highlands Rewilding estates, which aims to capitalise on environmental improvements from rewilding and the valuable ecosystem services they generate, continuing to develop community benefits from natural capital. This project is part of the Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS) scheme, co-funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with the Scottish Government and NatureScot.