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.

WSWG member Mike Thewlis has been investigating the local access network and has come up with a circular walking route he has named the “Stanley 3 Woods Nature Walk”, taking in Taymount, Five Mile and Stanley Rookery Woods along the way. He is encouraging us to use our core path network and other walking routes to get out and discover (or rediscover) what’s there on our doorstep. Read what he has to say about local access and other connections helping us enjoy and improve our natural environment.

On 1 April, WSWG participated in the Nature Networks Community Engagement event in Birnam, one of several such workshops run recently by PKC in conjunction with Perthshire Nature Connections Partnership. (Nature Networks? See our Word of the Month for more information.)

The concept of West Stormont Connect as a vision and conversation space for encouraging regenerative practices and connectedness for people and planet at local landscape scale in fact preceded the WSWG Community Woodlands Project. Whilst the WSWG Project has been evolving as part of the concept, other positive contributory factors have been developing alongside, including the Stanley Biodiversity Village initiative. The map evolved following a Mini Bioblitz programme for P&K Biodiversity Villages organised by Tayside Biodiversity Partnership in 2023 when WSWG asked for Taymount and Five Mile Woods to be included within the Stanley Biodiversity Village boundary.

Our ongoing priority this month has been working through the steps involved in submitting our revised funding application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), including another very useful Teams meeting on 28 February with Lauren Arthur, our NLHF Engagement Officer. We have been using our Vision Refresh Report from Nikki Souter Associates to inform the shape and scope of this new application where we are approaching NLHF as the main funder in bringing Taymount Wood into community ownership. As this involves material changes since our initial Expression of Interest was approved by NLHF in 2024 when we approached them as a prospective lesser funder, we will shortly be resubmitting our revised Expression of Interest to them. If accepted, we will proceed to submitting what we see as a very exciting Phase 1 funding application as soon as possible.

But meanwhile, can you guess what this is a photo of? See our Extra Word of the Month below for the answer.

This has been another month where behind-the-scenes admin has somewhat outpaced community stories or new milestones to lead on, so we will instead begin with a celebration of two natural highlights of the WSWG year so far. For most of us, the Aurora Borealis used to be a rare sight in Scotland, needing us to travel to the northern isles or northern Scandinavian for more reliable and impressive viewing. But recently, the Northern Lights have been much more active over the UK, both locally and even down to the south coast of England. Here are some shots taken of the skies above Taymount Wood around the turn of the year. Our second natural highlight is that Taymount and Five Mile Wood came through Storm Eowyn’s 90mph winds remarkably unscathed, both a joy and a relief to us all. Forestry and Land Scotland have carried out priority tree clearance to keep forestry tracks open. Thank you to those WSWG members who reported windblown trees across the core paths.

It’s been a deliberately quiet month for WSWG over the Christmas period so instead of a summary of what we’ve done in the past few weeks, our focus this January is on wishing all our members, supporters and wider community a Happy New Year, and then musing, with the help of a few uplifting photos taken this week, on how beautiful our woods are when draped in winter sunlight, frost and mist and what a stroll in nature can do for our spirit and wellbeing at this time of year. So, if you can, make sure you enjoy this treat for real with your own walk in the woods, whatever time of year it happens to be.

At this extraordinarily hectic time of year sometimes it’s rewarding to grab a cup of tea and take time to reflect on just how busy we’ve all been. Treat yourself to 5 minutes off and come down memory lane with WSWG for a photo montage of our Woodland Year. And it has been a busy twelve months for WSWG with lots of events bringing a wider range of people to the woods than in previous years, and even more going on behind the scenes in pursuit of our shared goals for our woods, wildlife and community. You can look back at all our Community Monthly Updates on our website to remind you of all the activities and connections we have enjoyed. We hope you have an amazing Festive Season and look forward to seeing you again in 2025. In the meantime, here are a few WSWG photos from a highly enjoyable 2024.

Our top story this month has to be the fantastic Bush Craft and Woodland Picnic event we had on 2 November in Taymount Wood with Biscuit of Wee Adventures, working in the woodland environment on a “Leave No Trace” basis.

In the morning, nine pre-school to 6 year old children learned how to put up shelters of different shapes and sizes using colourful tarpaulins and strings and ropes.

In the afternoon, thirteen 7 to 12 year olds had their turn, learning about knots and tarpaulins, working out how to tension and guy with ropes and found stakes to angle and raise or lower the tarps. Tree stumps became seats and tables, moss, twigs and leaves became gardens, and so imaginations roamed all day. Frogs, beetles and millipedes were greeted with enthusiastic huddles before being helped out of harm’s way.

Let’s start with a big thank you to PKC for the great job they have done resurfacing the U38 road from Five Mile Wood car park to Stanley past Active Kids. All done within the scheduled closure period and neatly tied in with a recessed tarmac apron at the car park. So much safer and more comfortable for everybody now the potholes and rough edges are no more.

Latest on Stanley Wildwood (Rookery Wood). You may remember that we dedicated our July Monthly Update to making the case for community ownership of Stanley Wildwood, with subsequent mailouts and Facebook posts to encourage our members and supporters to vote in PKC’s recent public consultation for a community-based future for this small but important woodland in Stanley village. We are therefore delighted to tell you that the Council has reported that 65.6% of respondents in the Stanley postcode area were in favour of a community outcome for the woodland. Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the consultation. WSWG and Tayside Woodland Partnerships are now in discussion with PKC to explore further the option of bringing the woodland into community ownership and management. We will keep you posted including ways individuals and the wider community can get involved going forward.