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Topic - What is "Trees for Life for Standfast" ?
Reply: We hope this answers your question.
by Adrian Grant
One
of the more well known bits of Grant history is that in 1509 King James IV gave
Glenmoriston and Glenurquhart to John"Bard Roy" Grant. While Glenurquhart
devolved upon John's third son, also John, founder of the Grants of Corriemony
and Sheuglie, Glenmoriston became the fiefdom of the powerful Grant of
Glenmoriston, descendants of Bard Roy's eldest (illegitmate) son John Mor. So
the year 2009 will mark the quincentenary of the Grants' acquisition of this
area.
In recent times even the last vestiges of the Glenmoriston estate
have been disposed of, but even before that time, estates within the estate had
been sold. One such was Dundreggan.
Since the mid 1800’s Dundreggan had
been run as a traditional sporting estate. The main attraction at Dundreggan was
the old Dundreggan Lodge. It was an impressive structure; typical of its time,
complete with 23 bedrooms, 3 public rooms and adjoining stables. It had all the
usual refinements, including a country garden growing fruit, vegetables and
herbs. It even had a large croquet lawn, part of which is still visible
today.
Shortly after returning from action in the Second World War, a
local man, Donnie Campbell, took over the farm tenancy of Dundreggan Lower
Ground from his parents who stayed in Dundreggan Cottage. A short while later he
had the opportunity to buy the farm at Dundreggan, which included The Old Lodge,
whilst Glenmoriston Estate retained ownership of the hill ground. By this time
(the late 1960’s) Dundreggan Lodge had fallen in to such a state of disrepair
that it had to be demolished. Donnie built the present keeper’s house on the
site of the old Lodge and Donnie’s sister Alice continued to live in the
cottage. In 1969, Donnie and Alma sold a small corner of a field on the west
side of the original lodge to a family from Aberdeenshire, who built a house
there. It is this house that is now referred to as Dundreggan Lodge.
Mr
& Mrs Campbell worked the farm until the late 1970’s when Donnie sold it,
because of ill health. Over the next few years the Italian businessman who had
bought the farm purchased Dundreggan Hill Ground from Glenmoriston Estate and
also the new Lodge house when it came up for sale. Dundreggan Land was then set
up as a company in Liechtenstein. The owner enjoyed his sporting pursuits at
Dundreggan until 1991, when he sold the estate to the Amos family, also from
Italy. They changed the company name to Dundreggan Estate Ltd., but it was still
registered in Liechtenstein.
In the mid 1990’s the upper Dalchreichart
Hill Ground was acquired, and in 2001 the Dalchreichart Plantation was
purchased, thus bringing together an area of approximately 10,000 acres. It is
this expanse of land that is now called Dundreggan Estate.
This estate
is currently being purchased by a Charity called "Trees for Life" based in
Findhorn - for full details see their website at http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/index.shtml
All the
money is now in place for the purchase to go through and then their plan is to
restore the whole area to ancient Caledonain Forest. But of course they need
funds to do this.
Global Warming and Carbon Offset in high profile at
the moment, so this is a particularly good time to be helping to restore such a
woodland. In this case the plan is that the trees will NEVER be cut down - so
the carbon sequestration will be permanent.
Not only that but restoring the
forest to its natural state will maximize the opportunity for re-establishing
biodiversity - the most number of different species of plant and animal.
This happy coincidence means that this is an ideal time for you to
help set the world to rights!
Wouldn't it be great to see a large
Clan Grant Society grove (or groves) planted in 2009 to celebrate our
quincentary? The trees would be in place for anyone coming to the International
Gathering in 2010 to visit "our" trees. As the Website shows each tree costs
just £5. So if members wish to send the money to the Clan Grant Society it can
be held in trust, separately identified - to mount up for onward transmission in
January 2009.
Please send your money - any amount, however big or small,
will be fine - payable to the "Clan Grant Society" and by Spring 2009 we will
have a Clan Grant Grove in Clan Grant territory to be proud of. The more money
you send, the bigger the grove we can have.
Make your cheques out to
"Clan Grant Society" and send them to
The Clan Grant Society of
Canada
Dundreggan Trees Appeal
PO Box 406
Osoyoos, BC Canada V0H
1V0
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