Community Monthly Update – June 2026

A very big thank you again to the Highland Community Energy Society for continuing their support of WSWG as a beneficiary of community funding each year from their Littleton Burn Hydro Scheme at Dalguise. It is a particularly valuable and versatile donation for WSWG each year, so is very much appreciated. Have a look at the WSWG Case Study on their website to remind you of how we have used their funding over the past few years. Visit www.hces.coop and search for the Community Fund.

Tragically, on 11 February, the PKC Planning and Placemaking Committee voted unanimously to approve the proposal for an intensive poultry rearing unit at Newbigging Farm adjacent to Taymount Wood, despite substantial local objection, including from WSWG and many of our members. The only mention of our community woodland in the planning report was as screening for the development and as a buffer for any pollution of King’s Myre Loch SSSI from the production unit. Needless to say, we are extremely sad and disappointed at this outcome.

Slightly belatedly, a very Happy New Year to all our members and supporters and here’s to a good one for us all. We’ve been hinting over the past couple of months at a change of direction for the WSWG Project and so the main purpose of January’s Community Monthly Update is to tell you a bit more about where we are heading in 2026.

Where has 2025 gone? Hopefully our regular newsletters will have kept you in touch with the WSWG Project throughout the year. You can look back at all our Community Monthly Updates on our website to remind you of the diverse activities and connections we have enjoyed. In the meantime, here are a few photos of some of the new activities which took place in 2025. And to all our members and supporters, the WSWG Board of Trustees would now just like to wish you a very happy festive season and we look forward to catching up with you again in 2026.

Courtesy of WSWG volunteer, Mike Thewlis, we once again have a functional noticeboard at each of the four main entrances to Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood. So a big thank you to Mike for all the work he has put in over the past few months repairing and replacing the old ones which were all well past their sell-by date. At last, we will be back to being able to post regular updates for walkers and other woodland users at whichever point they access the woods. Thank you also to the PKC Community Payback Team for pre-clearing the vegetation at the north entrance of Five Mile Wood to help Mike in the task there.

Mike Abbott, a founding member of WSWG.
It is with great sadness that we wish to let you know of the passing in August of our dear friend, Mike Abbott. It was Mike who started the whole WSWG ball rolling when, whilst walking his dog in Taymount Wood in 2018, he came upon a small notice announcing that the woods were for sale and that communities with an interest in buying, leasing or a management agreement should submit an Expression of Interest. With just two weeks left before the deadline, Mike and wife Betty got the local grapevine going and, the rest, as they say, is history. Mike was a key member of the WSWG Steering Group for several years until ill health meant he had to step back, and we are so grateful for everything he put into the development of the WSWG project at that critical stage. We send our love and thanks to Betty and family and will remember Mike very fondly.