Former manager calls for halt in £4m sale of Cashel Forest

Among the issues Mr Hunt raised is that there is “no answer as to what the plans are for the money that is realised if it’s sold”.

“That’s a huge amount of public money that has gone into it - and it doesn’t seem right that that money should be taken out and not necessarily put to the use for which it was given. The worry is that it could in time end up with unsympathetic owners who didn’t look after it for its native woodlands interest, but exploited it in some way to make money.”

Also caught up in the debate over the sale is the Royal Scottish Forestry Society (RSFS), which created Cashel Forest Trust and is its parent member. 

The estate on the east shore of Loch Lomond, was bought in 1996 for a purchase cost of £800,000, using public money from the National Lottery. Following this a further £100,000 of lottery money was also used to create a visitor centre.

In the late 1990s the RSFS applied for, and was awarded, a grant from the Millennium Forest for Scotland Trust to purchase Cashel farm.

A recent email from the vice president of the RSFS to its members describes the estate in 1996 as “a tick and bracken covered sheep farm on the east side of Loch Lomond”. The aim was to take this landscape and demonstrate how a typical land holding might be re-afforested with native species.

That has been achieved. There is now oak, birch, ash, aspen, alder, gean, hazel, holly, juniper, willow and Scots pine, as well as montane shrub. Cashel boasts some 300ha of native woodland, and is one of the largest and oldest of the ‘new’ native woodlands in Scotland.

There is also a visitor centre, as well as five walking trails, three of which are accessible by wheelchair, a wildlife dipping pond rebuilt and a red squirrel viewing hide. The Trust has initiated peatland restoration and the removal from the open hill of a large number of self-seeded non-native conifers.

In its initial press release the Trust said it was looking for new stewards of the land, which they had taken “as far as they can”.

The estate, which is on the market through the land agency, Goldcrest, is being sold in five lots, which include the farmhouse, 349 acres of woodland, 15 acres of pasture, which is described as having potential “for change of use” subject to gaining planning approval, the landlord’s interest in a hydro scheme, and a large 1,051 acre area of moorland, which is described as having “carbon credit potential for a total of 28,000 Pending Issuance Units”.

The Cashel Forest Trust, however, is not necessarily looking to sell all five lots.

Cashel  is significant in being part of a huge swathe of native woodland restoration, which stretches from the Trossachs, through land owned by the Woodland Trust, RSPB and the Forestry Commission, all the way down to Balmaha.

Mr Hunt desribed this as, in total, “the largest broadleaf woodland restoration project in Scotland, possibly in the UK. In total, but it’s owned by different organisations”.

“Cashel,” he added, “is at the southern end of it and it would be bad news if Cashel ceased to be part of that vision.”

He added: “It was always understood,that if the Cashel Forest trust was unable to continue or cease to exist that Cashel should be passed over to an organisation with similar aims, a conservation body of some kind, which would take it over and look after it. But I don’t see that there has been any attempt has been made to achieve that.”

READ MORE: 

Scotland's oldest 'new' forest on the banks of Loch Lomond for sale

What's going wrong with Scotland's forests?

Brewdog's dead trees trigger calls for change in grants

Raymond Henderson, interim chair of the Cashel Forest Trust said that such concern was not merited. 

“The public money spent at Cashel," he said, "was put to good use in creating a significant area of native woodland, a network of footpaths and a visitor centre. These features will not disappear in the event of a sale. Forestry regulations provide all woodlands, but particularly native forests, with high levels of protection, regardless of who owns them.”

“In the event of a sale of all or part of Cashel, any proceeds will be used for woodland related charitable purposes. Cashel Forest Trust is hoping to find a purchaser which is committed to conservation and habitat enhancement."

However some members of the RSFS have echoed Hunt's concerns. Amongst them is forester Willie McGhee, who said that no forewarning had been given of the sale to members. “There is also absolutely nothing anywhere that says how they would spend the £4 million they might receive from the sales. Effectively what’s happening is an offshoot of the RSFS is realising an enormous asset in order to get funds to do something that is invisible.”

"RSFS and CFS are organisations run and governed by land managers, forest manager, agents and an accounting firm, who cannot make a large rural property work? What happens if Cashel is sold to someone who then employs land agents or forest managers, who are RSFS members, to oversee the property?”

He added: “Just shy of £1 million of public money went into the buying of this site and funding the visitor centre and they’re asking for something like £4 million. 25 percent of that asking price was public funding. And, if you look at the sale details with Goldcrest there’s nothing in there that says that any owner has to provide  abide by the stuff that public benefits, environmental education, training, outreach, as espoused by the Cashel Trust principles.” 

Walkers on hill above Loch Lomond

One of his concerns was the level of consultation, prior to putting the estate on the market, with the community. “None of the local community were consulted on Loch Lomond-side. The Scottish Land Commission and others make a huge song and dance about how communities should be consulted on significant transfer or property. But none of that has happened."

However, Mr Henderson, who is also vice president of the RSFS pointed out that members had received emails that addressed some of these issues. The decision, he emphasised, was made by Cashel Forest Trust (CFT), and it was the unanimous decision of the CFT Trustees to market the Estate, not RSFS.

A recent email sent by Mr Henderson, for instance, pointed out that the grant had been subject to a 25-year security during which time Cashel Forest Trust was subject to conditions and consents relating to any changes to the Estate, but that it was “released from these conditions in 2022 and there are no further obligations”.

“You will note,” the email said, “that the Estate is being promoted in lots; the premise being that if sufficient funds can be raised through the sale of the largely open hill part of the Estate, Cashel Forest Trust will retain the remainder – in particular the forestry, visitor centre and farmhouse.

“Cashel Forest Ttrust would then have the funds to support woodland/forestry education and other charities with similar objectives. CFT Trustees have been clear that the lower part of the estate, including the house, visitor centre the woodlands and paths would not NOT be sold if the hill land received no acceptable offers.”

A question and answered session, organised by Royal Scottish Forestry Society, is due to take place at the Cashel Visitor Centre on August 15.