Dunnet Community Forest 2025 Round Up:

Written by Loïc Manson

Another year over and another year of lots happening in the Dunnet Community Forest.  We thought we would have a think about all that’s gone on this past year and share it with you. 

One of the most exciting – the compost loo!  Just up from the woodshed, we now have, for groups and volunteers working in the forest, a toilet with wheelchair access, which will be super handy.

Earlier on this year the new Dinosaur Trail was added to the forest with lovely hand-painted dinosaurs, painted by Maureen on tree rings from the forest itself.  Little ones will love wandering about searching for and finding each one, lots of fun!

Also newly added to the forest is the 2nd bench kindly donated by Mandy Bailasek, this time dedicated to her mum, Sally, to go with her dad’s bench.  They are both beautifully handcrafted by Iain Chalmers of Chainsaw Creations, Culbokie, full of creatures and things that Sally and Jack both loved.  They make a lovely place to sit and rest, next to the newly refurbished xylophone and close to the sweet new fairy houses that have been made by volunteers.

More fairy houses were made by the volunteers and donated to Mount Pleasant Nursery recently for the children to paint and enjoy.  The wood for these fairy houses came from the sea buckthorn at the front of the forest that was cut back earlier to keep it under control.

There’s been more work done along the front of the forest path, including the annual pond clearing to keep on top of the invasive Elodia Canadensis – Canadian Pond Weed, the meadow just recently cut thanks to Neil Lievesley and cleared by the volunteers, ready for next year’s growth of wildflowers that attract many species of minibeasts, and a second butterfly bank put in which, together with the first, has been a huge success in attracting not just the extremely rare Small Blue butterfly but also the attention of Hamza Yassin from Countryfile on the BBC!  The lovely Louise Senior from Species on the Edge and our own fabulous volunteer Daniel Parlour were interviewed and appeared on the show, showcasing the butterfly banks covered in kidney vetch, the only food source of the Small Blue.  You can find out more from the Species on the Edge blogposts here -(Butterfly Bank update – it’s a success for Small Blues! | Species On The Edge.)

Further up near the back of the forest the original boat has been replaced with a lovely fresh, new one.  It’s set in a delightful little area with another bench for you to rest and enjoy the quieter area of forest.  We personally love going up to this area, a great spot for walking past all the snowberry bushes.

We’ve been lucky enough this year to have some wonderful experts taking the community and volunteers on guided walks throughout forest and the year.  First up we had Plantlife’s

Lichen and bryophyte specialist Dr Oliver Moore teaching us all about the local lichens.  He was so enthusiastic and knowledgeable, we had great fun using loupes to discover what lives in the forest and how it reacts to the environment.  That same day we helped Aimee Lockwood with ideas for a Species on the Edge comic.  Amy is a talented local artist and was really fun to spend the afternoon with, drawing characters based on the lichens we had found on the walk with Oliver.

Dunnet Community Forest also held a fungi walk for the public, and were lucky enough to have Colin Doull, Andy Donegan, Yianna Drury Bidirni and Will Brantingham 4 experts from The Caithness Fungi Group that day funded by the Caithness International Science Festival. There were lots of kids as well as adults and we all enjoyed finding the many fungi in the forest, including an amazing find of Cordyceps Militaris, it’s a fungus that parasitizes moth pupae.( I couldn’t find the name of the rare one but I do remember the cordyceps growing out of the head of a caterpillar.

Its whereabouts, along with the Scottish Primrose which is also in the forest, is a secret, but we promise you it’s there!

One of our long standing volunteers is also a pole-lathe turner, and provided pole-lathe turning classes in the woods, on his own hand-made lathes!  What a skill to learn and the perfect environment to learn it in.

On our many walks in the forest we always love to see which birds we can spot and sometimes only hear, and this year DCF was part of a bird-ringing event by Steph Griffiths RSPB, Volunteers got to be part of the study and helped with the netting and ringing.

Up at Heath’sfield, the public forest in Brough, which was very kindly gifted to the DCF, we have been busy cutting back fireweed, thinning trees, replacing old bridges with culverts, and ripping out an old boundary fence which was then replaced.  The next job is to clear out and replace an old seating area near the pond so look out for that, it will be a splendid place to sit, relax and watch the myriad of wildlife. 

Further afield, DCF took its’s volunteers up to help out at Borgie Forest, putting in new signage.  It was a great day getting to know and working with the other forest volunteers and learning new skills.

To finish off the year we had a Christmas Funday at the cabin which was lot of festive fun!  There were carol singers and live music, fairy house and tree decoration making, hot chocolate and snacks, raffles, birdwatching walks and an orienteering event.  A DCF 2026 calendar was being sold and can still be bought for £10 each and is full of beautiful photos of our lovely local forest, available from the woodshed which has log sales every first Saturday of the month.

Coming next year, we will be starting an orienteering club which will be part of the INVOC group (the Inverness Orienteering Club) which is really exciting.  We have been preparing for it this year by attending courses, both online and in person, going to orienteering training and events all around the Inverness area and also a 2-day competition in Stirling, as well as checking our own existing course in the forest so we’re very keen to get that up and running properly in 2026.  Everyone will be welcome, all ages including young children with their responsible adults, and we will let you know more as soon as we can.

Looking forward to another fab year in the forest, and all the best for 2026!

If you have enjoyed reading this blog and would like to get involved contact:

 Garance, Forest Development officer on dev@dunnetforest.org

We have a number of volunteering opportunities in the forest, our regular monthly log sale first Saturday of the month 10am – 1pm. We have two Green Gym sessions, Thursdays 9am – 12pm and Sundays 11am – 2pm. If you would like to get involved with the planning and management there are opportunities to become a member of our Board or Steering Committee.