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 recreation proposition, and a field studies centre.  

We are now delighted to announce that the food and drinks manufacturer Gin Bothy will be leasing the complex of industrial buildings along with two other properties on the estate. Their intention is to open a small craft distillery in the industrial buildings (subject to Planning Consent), and to open a visitor experience which will include information about the vision and future of the public land.

A family will also be moving into one of the currently vacant properties. Two of the estate houses are also 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 wellbeing, and biodiversity recovery).

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. 

We recruited a Programme Manager and Planning Forester who both started in August 2023. In 2024, we've recruited a Wildlife Ranger and Craftsperson to work in the Angus Glens. 

We're working to reduce the deer population across the national forest and land in the Angus Glens. This includes taking on deer management for NatureScot in Corrie Fee National Nature Reserve which lies between Glen Prosen and Glen Doll.

We're selling venison into the food market from deer culled on the estate.

In conjunction with statutory stakeholders such as neighbouring landowners, South Grampian Deer Management Group, NatureScot and local communities, we are now revising our deer management plan to incorporate deer fencing where necessary. This will help us achieve our objective to enable habitat recovery and new native woodland creation.

We've completed harvesting operations to clear some of the windblown areas in Glen Prosen, providing better access for future work. Our next harvesting operations in Glen Prosen will commence mid-2025.

We're in discussions with Angus Council and the Timber Transport Forum regarding an upgrade to the public road to allow for safer haulage of timber out of the glen. 

Windblow clearance will begin in Glen Doll in autumn 2024 to re-open the White Water trail.

We've undertaken a range of surveys to inform our land management planning, including soils, breeding birds, habitats, and archaeology. 

Throughout 2024 we're continuing to carry out ecological surveys and establish baseline monitoring, including: 

• fixed point photography
• drone footage
• peatland survey
• river restoration and freshwater habitats
• natural regeneration tree survey
• wildlife camera trapping