In August, we broke ground on the Rewilding Centre at Dundreggan. This marked the beginning of a transformation that will turn Dundreggan into a place where people come to discover a landscape being restored and leave inspired to engage with rewilding.
The appointed building contractor Compass is working to a 60-week build schedule. With a Highland winter ahead, we will allow for some weather-related delays. If the build finishes on time in late autumn 2022, then we can open ‘softly’ to small groups and the local community for one-off events.
When the centre opens fully in the spring of 2023, there will be more than a dozen new team members. They will help deliver everything the centre is designed for: to be a gateway to the forest; to be a bridge between the boundaries of inside and outside, past and future, global and local; and to offer education and inspiration, as well as the simple pleasures of coffee, trail walks, and outdoor discovery for children.
With preparatory groundworks complete and the foundations underway, we’re now working with CMC Associates and Abound Design & Interpretation to flesh out the centre’s interpretation - what it will say, share and feel like. The interpretation will be based on four themes:
We share this space: humans and nature can work together to mutual benefit
The past, present and future of the Caledonian Forest
How Gaelic history, culture and language can tell us about our past and inform our present and future
Landscape and culture are always changing
While the Rewilding Centre will be a truly unique place, not just in the UK, but globally, our focus will remain local. By looking at changes in the landscape close up, we hope to inspire action and imagination on a larger scale.
The centre’s dipping pond, for example, will be a place for people to engage with the natural world who might not otherwise be able to walk deep into forests. At the pond, there might be damselflies and dragonflies - residents of the earth for some 300 million years. The young dragonfly nymphs are top freshwater predators with jaws that can unhinge to swallow prey, something that was not lost to local culture.
In Gaelic, dragonflies have a variety of names that, perhaps not unfairly, allude to their deadly nature. The most common word, universally understood, is tarbh-nathrach, meaning ‘snake-like bull.’ Another less commonly used name is cuileag-lasrach, meaning ‘flashing fly.’ Just last month, a major report on the insect found that dragonflies are being pushed northwards by rising temperatures.
The Rewilding Centre will be ideally placed to pull out these different threads of nature, culture, history and the current nature and climate crises, and consider the relationship between each. We hope the centre will be an ecosystem of ideas, as well as a place to see the positive impacts of rewilding in action. The dragonfly is just one small creature that could inspire new generations to rewild their world. We want people to do this in a way that is meaningful to them, and in the process, rewild themselves.
CMC Associates and Abound Interpretation will work with Gaelic consultants Roddy McLean and Ceit Langhorne to develop these kinds of interpretation ideas.
We have appointed SPEY to carry out the centre’s press and marketing. The experienced team there will help build a distinct brand and digital profile for the centre, and have created dedicated social media accounts. Search for @visitdundreggan on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with the centre’s progress.
In November, Kat will be running a series of community events with Gaelic consultants Roddy and Ceit, and artist Helen Denerley, to inform the development of the centre’s Gathering Tree sculpture. Keep an eye on our social media channels and our newsletter, Tree News, for more information on these sessions.
From a practical perspective, public vehicle access to Dundreggan estate is now restricted. The public car park will be closed for the duration of the works. Visitors are still welcome, but you will need to arrive on foot or by bike. The Trees for Life nursery team will continue to run the tree nursery as normal. Other activities based at Dundreggan, such as deer management and the Skills for Rewilding programme, will also be unaffected.The Dundreggan Rewilding Centre is generously funded by the Natural and Cultural Heritage Fund, led by NatureScot, and funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, SSE Sustainable Development Fund, Audemars Piguet Foundation, FERN Community Funds, Garfield Weston Foundation, Andrew Telfer, Duncan Ford, Hannes Gysin, Murray Drummond, Peter Keiller, the Carman Family Foundation, and the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.