Building a strong foundation in Assynt
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I’M used to single-track roads, but even so, the one and a half mile route from Lochinver to Glencanisp Lodge, headquarters of the Assynt Foundation, is worryingly narrow.
There are few passing places and I am concerned about meeting oncoming traffic. With my reversing skills, a recovery truck might well be needed to fish me out of the ditch.
But I make it without event and drive round the corner to the left of the lodge to find it and the surrounding area a hive of activity.
There’s obviously a wedding under way as a marquee has been erected at the front of the property and a large number of people are buzzing around.
Parking at the recently erected pole barn – an open-sided wooden structure – I make my way up a slight incline to the Art Studio which is also newly built.
The landscape is stunning and dominating the skyline is the distinctive shape of the 731m high mountain, Suilven. Plans are in hand for a £165,000 project to improve the path up the ben, accessed from Glencanisp.
I have arranged to meet Assynt Foundation chairman Stewart Hill and director Nigel Goldie. The foundation is this month celebrating the 10th anniversary of its groundbreaking community buy-out of the south Assynt estates of Glencanisp and Drumrunie.
The acquisition of the 42,000 acres of land made it the largest community buy-out in Scotland.
However, as I am to discover, the last decade has had its ups and downs, with the initial euphoria dissipating under the challenges of running a Highland estate.
Hill, now retired, formerly worked as a divisional director for GEC-Marconi.
He has been chair of Assynt Foundation for around 18 months and before that was involved in Assynt Biz, the group’s trading arm.
Goldie used to run a charity in London and is also a sculptor. He has served on the board for two years and has been the main driver behind the Artist’s Studio which, it is hoped, will attract income-generating creative arts and other workshops.
Glencanisp and Drumrunie had been in the ownership of the Vestey family for years before the buy-out. Both were traditional shooting, sporting and fishing estates. The family used the lodge only during the summer and it was in a fairly tired condition.
Goldie said: "We got the land but most of it did not have an economic purpose other than for stalking. It was a hunting estate and did not do much else. The foundation invested in the infrastructure of the estate and the lodge needed refurbishment.
"The land is still very much used for sporting purposes and extensively by walkers, holidaymakers and local people enjoying the wild beauty. Paying guests shoot around 56 stags in the season and the resident stalker and his assistant cull up to 120 hinds annually."
But much else has been achieved. The lodge has undergone an extensive £1,250,000 renovation thanks to outside funding and is now open for group bookings.
The Pole Barn, which was initially planned as a storage space but is now being floored for ceilidhs and dances, and the Artist’s Studio have also been built. There are plans for extensive woodland planting and blanket bog restoration has also been undertaken.
However it has not been without huge effort and, according to Hill and Goldie, a "bucket of water" was long ago thrown over the "romance" of community land ownership.
A continuing problem is finding volunteers with the legal, financial, commercial and land management skills and experience required to manage the business. Hill explained: "This is a small community and there is a limited pool of people you can draw on and certain very specific skills sets are required."
Directors serve a six year term in office but some have to keep going because there is no one else to take over from them.
Hill, who spends two days a week on foundation business, said: "If you are not careful, you get volunteer fatigue. People get driven into the ground. My wife keeps telling me that I am supposed to be retired but that this is a full-time job.
"Never a day goes by without you having to do something for the Assynt Foundation. Nobody should underestimate the amount of work and effort and call on volunteers’ time that is required to get it to operate."
Hill is keen to see more young people take seats on the board.
"We are all a bit long in the tooth and could do with some young people joining. We would like a cross-section of the community," he said.
Goldie thinks that groups staging community buy-outs should be given more support by the Scottish Government.
He said: "There has been an overall lack of attention in terms of investment from the Scottish Government to find ways to support the process of governance.
"It is assumed that within the community there is a sufficient body of people with background knowledge and experience to manage a complex organisation.
"It would be nice to think there was some central government-funded body that would provide the advice and information you need. I’d like to think we could pick up the phone, outline a problem and be given help and advice." Funding is another major problem. While it has been relatively easy to source one-off grants for projects such as the lodge refurbishment, Pole Barn and Artist’s Studio, finding a consistent revenue stream has proved elusive.
It takes roughly £250,000 annually to keep the estate going but it is operating on a £30,000 deficit largely because of loan repayments to Social Investment Scotland. A decision was taken recently to sell Ledbeg House to raise capital.
It was suggested at one point that a wind farm could be provide the much-needed annual income, but the plan was so divisive locally that it had to be dropped.
Hope came from another renewable energy quarter when Gilbert Gilkes and Gordon Ltd, a UK manufacturer of water turbines, expressed an interest in a hydro scheme on the estate.
An agreement was signed 15 months ago, but to everyone’s disappointment it proved to be commercially unviable because of the £1.6 million costs of connecting to the grid.
"The hydro scheme could have transformed our fortunes and been our saving grace. We could have been looking at an income stream for decades and that would have made life a lot easier for us," said Hill.
The foundation is in the throes of drawing up a five-year financial plan and is determined to become self-sustaining.
Hill said: "We are scrabbling around but we are succeeding. We have had a lot of assistance from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and continue to have discussions with them.
"However, we cannot be addicted to grant funding all our lives and our ultimate goal is to be fully sustainable.
"When you are dependant on grant income, you are not really in control of your own destiny. Quite legitimately, your grant funders will want an input.
"If you want to be free to make your own decision, then you have to become self-funding."
He continued: "The drive now is to get the lodge occupancy up because we know that is a substantial income generator. Last year we were running at 55 per cent occupancy and we want to get it up to 70 per cent. We have got to look at enticing people to stay in the shoulder months.
"Weddings have been a growth area for us. There is a wedding today and seven weddings booked in total for this year."
Problems aside, Hill and Goldie believe that the Assynt Foundation has achieved the aim of the community buy-out — to open up the estate to local people.
"The social and economic benefits to the local community are many," said Hill. "One cottage on the estate is being used as affordable accommodation while outbuildings near the lodge have been turned into units for local business enterprise, including a ceramics studio and a green woodworking workshop.
"The walled garden is being used by local people for growing fruit and vegetables and by a local person disadvantaged in the employment sector.
"Areas of the wider estate are being used for community enterprises including livestock grazing and trials biking activities aimed at young and disadvantaged people.
"Running a community-owned estate is a different ball game to managing a private estate or some other enterprise. It is a challenge but it is worth it."
