Our story
The Arkaig Community Forest was formed in 2014 by members of the community of Achnacarry, Bunarkaig and Clunes in Lochaber. We partnered with the Woodland Trust to fundraise and buy land that was offered for sale by Forestry Land Scotland. The two organistions now own and manage that land in partnership. Our aim is to restore native woodland habitats through removal of non-native and invasive species, deer management, and reforestation, and in doing so to re-connect local people with the management and stewardship of the site and to use the woodlands to underpin sustainable rural development in the community.
We manage over 1,000 hectares of forest in two blocks, Glenmallie and the Gusach (a Gaelic wood for a pinewood). These 1,000 hectares consist of native broadleaf woodland, Caledonian pine forest and non-native plantation conifers. Our Caledonian, or Scots pine, forest is one of the last remaining stands of this native rainforest left in the UK.
Starting in 2021, we began the work of removing the non-native species from the Arkaig Forest, starting with Glenmallie and with the Gusach a year later. The task of felling trees in the Gusach presented a serious hurdle. Owing to the remote nature of the forest, it was not accessible by any road, and we were keen to limit the impact created by roadbuilding. To this end, a barge was purpose built to ferry timber across the loch where it could connect with the main road on the north shore. Each-Uisge, the water horse, is the first barge of its kind to operate in Scotland.
In 2022 we constructed our tree nursery, in order to produce locally grown trees to aid in the reforestation of the Arkaig Forest and other similar projects. Our deer larder followed in 2023, processing locally culled wild venison for sale as part of our forest management practice.
