Angus Glens - frequently asked questions

In November 2022 FLS acquired 3,500 hectares of land in Glen Prosen, with around ten estate buildings, for £17.4M from Scottish Government’s fund for woodland creation. This expands our existing 4,000ha landholding in the vicinity (Glen Isla, Glen Doll and a forestry plantation in Glen Prosen). Prior to the sale, the previous owner terminated employment of on-site staff.  FLS offered three tenancies, two of whom have since secured housing elsewhere, one already resides on a neighbouring estate, and one was offered a role and they have since left.

Glen Prosen is the missing piece of the jigsaw that links our existing land holdings in the Angus Glens and other areas of public land together. 

Our broad aims on purchasing the estate were in line with the Scottish Government's commitment to nature recovery, climate resilience and people's health and wellbeing.

Now in public ownership, Glen Prosen forms the centre of approximately 10,500ha of public land, giving us the opportunity to work with other public bodies and neighbouring landowners to achieve landscape-scale habitat restoration in the Cairngorms National Park.

We are pursuing promising opportunities with the wider community and businesses to put the built assets to sustainable use, creating new jobs, exciting partnerships, and providing an income for FLS. Proposals on the table include a tree nursery, an education offer, a manufacturing business, a recreation proposition, and a field studies centre.  We hope to be able to share this information by the end of 2024. Two of the estate houses are currently occupied by tenants.

We intend to seek ‘green finance’, which is private investment in nature-based solutions (such as carbon storage and sequestration, flood risk reduction, enhanced well-being, and biodiversity recovery etc). This is an emerging area for which policy and standards are still being developed, and Angus Glens can contribute to piloting such approaches. We will also see revenue generated from the on-site hydro scheme, venison sales, leases of estate buildings and land and via partnership opportunities.

A carbon credit (or offset) is a reduction or removal of emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases to compensate for emissions made elsewhere. Such credits are tradeable and therefore a potential source of income for projects creating new woodland or restoring peatland. If this is an option that we choose to pursue, we will use the government-backed UK Woodland Carbon Code and UK Peatland Code to independently validate and monitor ongoing carbon benefits of the project.

FLS’ priorities are the creation of new native woodland and a mosaic of other habitats; reducing the current deer population is integral to achieving this.   We are an active member of South Grampian Deer Management Group (DMG), who are tasked by Nature Scot to reduce deer population in the landscape.  We are consulting with the DMG, our neighbouring landowners and other key stakeholders on our plans.  We will achieve a lower deer population density through a combination of culling deer and fencing new woodland. We work to the highest standard of deer  management, and are registered as ‘Fit and Competent’ by NatureScot, the body responsible for the sustainable management of wild deer species in Scotland.  You can find out more about our approach to deer management.

This project will adhere to the Scottish Government’s definition of rewilding, which includes involvement of people in the process. Habitat restoration, nature recovery and facilitating natural processes (such as tree regeneration and naturalised river courses) will be key, and we may consider reintroduction of lost tree and shrub species where they play a role in the ecosystem and nature’s recovery.

As a more natural ecosystem is restored there will be a significant period of adjustment and change. We will use an evidence-based approach to identify and protect important species and monitor changes as the site and the project develops.

Through the Land Management Plan process, we will investigate opportunities for agricultural uses on our land, particularly where this can support sustainable food production and jobs, alongside helping to achieve nature recovery and climate resilience.