Two Woods, 10 Years, 10 Priorities. On 30 July we had an excellent meeting with Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) from this starting point to begin detailing the way forward for developing the new Management Agreement and Long Term Plans for Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood whilst remaining in FLS ownership for the time being. It will take time as everything is brought into place over the coming months but all is looking very promising for a bright future for Nature in Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood and for their improving value to our local community in West Stormont.

On 6 July, we had our second Wee Adventures bushcraft day of 2026 in Taymount Wood. In the morning, a group of 4-8 year old children enjoyed a wonderful session of knot-tying, shelter building, tree climbing, swing and pull-up construction, ditch-jumping, skipping, mag posts, fairy-house creation and more. In the afternoon, a group of adults with visual or hearing impairment, carers, Vision PK staff and WSWG volunteers joined Biscuit for a variety of bushcraft activities and wide-ranging chat over a picnic in our glorious woodland setting, beautifully tranquil apart from the hourly accompaniment of a very noisy bird-scarer in a nearby field! Adults and children alike enjoyed the delicious picnic boxes from Alison’s Kitchen in Blairgowrie. Thank you to all our much-valued WSWG volunteers who helped out on the day.

On 28 May, WSWG had an excellent site visit to Taymount Wood with Jen Davidson and Munro Kerr to share with them what WSWG wishes to achieve for nature recovery and community through the proposed Management Agreement with FLS and seek their views and advice. Jen is the Conservation and Projects Officer at Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust, where she is the co-ordinator of the Nature Connections Partnership Perth and Kinross and the lead for the Climate Connect Perth and Kinross Nature Network which WSWG is part of. Munro Kerr runs a nature recovery business with Alasdair Worrell – Alba Fiadhaich (Ala-ba Fee-ah-eich), its translation being akin to “Wild Scotland”.

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.

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.