Wester Ross estate house to be turned into charity run rainforest centre
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A 95-year old estate house in Wester Ross is to be reborn as a conservation hub in a bid to protect the rare and threatened habitats of Scotland's rainforests.
Couldoran House – set in the spectacular Wester Ross National Scenic Area and the Wester Ross UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, part of Scotland’s rainforest zone – will be the site of the new charity run Scottish Rainforest Centre.
The new centre is the brainchild of internationally renowned environmental lawyer and activist Kathryn Rae who has launched a new charity to purchase the house from Woodland Trust Scotland, using funds from a number of private donors.
The two organisations plan to work in cooperation – The Trust conserving and expanding the woodland in the wider area while the centre focuses on education and hosting visiting researchers.
Australian-born Ms Rae, who has knowledge of both temperate rainforests in Scotland and tropical rainforests in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica, hopes the centre will provide "an ideal venue" for events, workshops and meetings, with accommodation options available for volunteers, students and academics.
She said: “We want to host scientists working in the rainforest zone, but I am also very keen that local school children visit regularly and children from cities can stay and explore the rainforest and become involved in its conservation."
The Centre will also be made available to the local community for non-woodland events.
Ms Rae added: “As a long-time supporter and life member of the Woodland Trust I was very excited by their rainforest conservation plans out on the estate – but when I saw the house I could see there was another job to be done; an interesting opportunity to support rainforest conservation.
"People have been waking up to the fact that Scotland has its own temperate rainforest along the west coast, and that action is needed to stop it disappearing. It seems to me that this emerging movement needs a physical hub and Couldoran House fits the bill.”
Woodland Trust Scotland has been consulting locally on the future of the house and they say there is a good deal of enthusiasm for the idea of a rainforest centre. A drop in event was held this week to update people on the latest developments.
Estate Manager Malcolm Turner of Woodland Trust Scotland said: “Kathryn is an inspiring woman with a huge amount of experience. She is the ideal person to drive forward plans for the house to makes a huge difference both locally and nationally.
“We bought Couldoran Estate because it has great potential for woodland creation. We can get on with that while the Scottish Rainforest Centre does a complimentary job educating. It is a marvellous fit.
“As responsible landowners and we hope, good neighbours we are looking into handing on some other parts of the estate, potentially for affordable housing. We are in discussions with the Communities Housing Trust to see what might be feasible. We recognise the need for community access to affordable land, access to affordable housing and empowerment of local communities to shape their own destinies.
“Scotland’s rainforest is one of our most precious habitats. It is as important as tropical rainforest, but even rarer. It is made up of the native woodlands found on our west coast in the ‘hyper-oceanic’ zone. High levels of rainfall and relatively mild, year-round temperatures provide just the right conditions for some of the world’s rarest bryophytes and lichens to form a lush green understory beneath the canopy.”
The new charity has raised funds from a number of private donors to acquire Couldoran House. It will seek further donations and grant-funding to develop the concept and upgrade the building.
A date has yet to be set for the opening of the centre.
