Archaeology at the Findhorn Sanctuary Site

By Michael Sharp | Published: 16/12/2024

During preliminary groundworks for the construction of the new sanctuary, the mechanical excavator exposed a shell deposit at the east end of the site. After being notified of it, I offered to investigate further, which led to several days of excavations. These revealed that there were in fact two shell middens, one on top of the other, and separated by approximately ten centimetres of wind-blown sand. The presence of charcoal and fire-cracked stone indicate that these were not merely piles of shells, but rather the result of human activity—the collection of shellfish from Findhorn Bay, and their subsequent cooking and eating.

I assumed that these would prove to be Mesolithic, at least six thousand years old, and therefore created by our hunter–gatherer forebears. But I would not know for certain until the results of radiocarbon dating came back.

In the meantime I dug down through the midden deposits, took photographs, and collected numerous samples of the shell and other material. These samples were examined carefully in the hope of finding charcoal, seeds, fish bone, and with luck some cultural objects. These objects might range from small flint tools, to antler picks, and harpoons.

The analysis of the samples showed that the upper deposit consisted largely of mussel shells, sand, and charcoal, while the lower one was dominated by cockle shells and fire-cracked stone. The differing assemblages of shells may indicate a difference in the preferences of the two groups using the site, or they may represent changes in the shellfish in the bay over time, as some species are sensitive to changes in temperature and the composition of the substrate. Similar differences were observed in middens on the Culbin Sands in excavations there.

It would be an understatement to say that I was surprised by the radiocarbon dates when they came in. It turns out that neither deposit was Mesolithic. The lower one dated to the later Iron Age—between 172 and 48 BCE. This is a time in Scotland when many defended hill forts were occupied, as were the Broch towers in the North, and iron smithing was being carried out in the enclosure on Cluny Hill in Forres. The upper midden deposit was dated to the Early Medieval period (893–1022 AD), about a thousand years later than the lower one, about the time when the Pictish fort at Burghead was being attacked by the Vikings, and Sueno’s stone was being erected in Forres.

Michael Sharpe
Archeologist
October 2024

Acknowledgements: Thanks are owed to Jonathan Caddy, who alerted me to the presence of the shell midden deposits; to Bruce Mann of the Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service who supported the project and funded the radiocarbon dating; and to Jason Caddy of Greenleaf Design and Build who gave me access to the site and made the excavations possible.

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Celebrating What the Findhorn Hinterland Does

By jonathan.caddy | Published: 16/09/2024

Last Year’s Activities and Achievements

I did a similar thing last year to reflect on the many events and successes of the Trust by sharing the text that will be sent to the charity regulator in the FHT annual report from 1st April 2023 to the 31st March 2024. I think it important to share and celebrate our many achievements as far and as wide as possible and hope you will enjoy this little overview of our work. I have included a few photos to show some of this year’s activities.

Much has been achieved on many fronts this year with activities and events that often simultaneously promote all four of the charity’s purposes. Some of the most prominent have been:

Conservation and Educational Events on or Related to the Land

This year there were a couple of important initiatives with one being an exploration of how the charity might carry out larger scale dune restoration work involving machinery to decrease the area of gorse and trees on the land it manages to help maintain and develop the biodiversity of this rare habitat. This had been proposed for some years in the FHT Local Biodiversity Action plan the FHT Management Plan but this is the first year that a decision was made to develop this idea.

Ecologist Sean Reed took a lead in coming up and developing a plan and connecting to similar projects locally resulting in visits to the RSPB dune restoration project on the Old Bar at Culbin and the Butterfly Conservation Species on the Edge project at Nairn. There were also several meetings with the neighbouring charity Findhorn Dunes Trust to see if we might develop a joint project together but factors such as funding and differing timings made this less likely at this time.

The project helped the charity put together a star species list of rare organisms that inhabit the land we manage which was only possible due to the specialist biodiversity surveys arranged by trustee Alan Watson Featherstone – this year he had Joe Botting carry out a survey of true bugs and a visit by a group of specialists from the south of England carried out a moth survey. All this work generated some very interesting conservation related articles for the local press, the community weekly magazine and our own quarterly newsletter. Over £2000 was raised for this project through a Go Fund Me appeal around Christmas and a showing of the environmental film When the Bough Breaks in the Hall helped with awareness raising and also further fundraising. Public presentations and walks on the land to inform the public of our intended work also took place in March. Further fundraising and project development is intended next year to enable work to start on the ground during the autumn/winter 2024/25 season. The dune restoration work was also given a real boost by having four special work parties during the winter that included up to 30 asylum seekers from Elgin joining with local volunteers to help clear a large area of trees to the north of Wilkies Wood. This was done in conjunction with the Moray Supports Migrants and Refugees (MSMR) charity, the Moray Council with some funding help through the Volunteering Scotland Earth Action fund.

Another new initiative was to put together a more ambitious educational programme for the following year to see if we could develop this aspect of the trust further despite 2023/24 programmes having been a little disappointing – longer retreats had to be cancelled but others such as the Sharing Nature programme put on by Roy Simpson were well received.

In addition to these new initiatives the normal series of monthly work parties were carried out with particularly well attended events around bees in the spring and a summer happening in the Woodland Garden. Celebration events such as the May Day Celebration, a Summer Solstice Event and our traditional Christmas tree/winter gathering at the Woodland Shelter and Santa’s Grotto special event at the Conservation Hub were all appreciated and continue to help build a sense of local community through fun and nature connection. The Forres Academy Biology Field Trip in June is also now turning into a much appreciated annual event that involves over 50 young people using the charity land to carry out meaningful study.

Buildings/ Projects

One of the projects that was completed this year was the Shepherd’s Hut which was then moved on site during the Mayday celebration. It was soon in use to house a couple of long term volunteers; Louna Kornobis and Mitch Tarbit who have in turn helped projects such as the painting of the tractor trailer and the reroofing of the wood store roof which is an extension of the Conservation Hub.

A new building project was that of crafting a couple of chunky benches that an older member of the community commissioned to go out on the landscape for all to use. This was possible because of the involvement of woodworker Steven Porter who inspired volunteers to help with this creative and worthwhile venture.

Green Burial Activity – This has been the second full year that the four strong burial team has been in operation and one of them, Laura Shreenan, has now taken on the sale of lairs from Will Russell, the previous one man coordinator. All has been working well with 4 new burials taking place this year including three events involving community members Dee Sunshine 26/11/2023, George Ripley 03/02/2024 and Astrid Gobbett 11/03/2024. This brings the total number of burials to 57 with a further 72 lairs reserved.

Woodland Garden – Draeyk van der Horn has continued to coordinate this aspect of the trust’s work despite the considerable workload as the Moray Council Green Councillor. There have been fewer garden volunteers this year which has meant the support of a couple of larger work parties at critical times of the year has been particularly appreciated. The Outdoor Learning Space structure continues to be enjoyed by the many that take time to visit the garden.

Membership and Publicising the Work of the Trust. This is the fourth year of running the trust’s paid membership scheme with a slight increase this year from 180 to 196 members. Our quarterly newsletter has been appreciated by many and has been very useful in promoting our work to grant givers and prospective new members. The Conservation Hub information boards continue to promote our work alongside the high quality posters and promotional material produced by our marketing person, Birgit Carow.

Personnel and Administrative Successes – The trustee group has remained stable and our part time Land Manager Kajedo Wanderer continues to underpin much of what the FHT does on the land. Regular land management, finance, beekeeping and green burial subgroup meetings have served the work of the trust well in giving time to discuss and make decisions on important operational matters.

Jonathan Caddy
FHT Chair
Taken as an extract from the 2022-2023 FHT Trustees Report 

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Chair’s Report – Spring/Summer 2024

By jonathan.caddy | Published: 16/09/2024

This summer I was once again away from Findhorn for the whole month of July in the privileged position of being able to explore the magnificent country of Scotland by sailboat – this year Shetland, the Orkney Islands, round Cape Wrath to the far northwest of the mainland, all down the Outer Hebrides from Lewis to Vatersay then many of the Inner Hebrides before sailing up to Fort William and a return through the Caledonian Canal to Lossiemouth. Absolutely fabulous! This meant that many of the activities going on on the land were packed into June and August for me and they were certainly packed!

June activities included the first of a couple of drama performances in Wilkies Wood put on by Laura Pasetti and many young people attending her Theatre of the 7 Directions based at the Park Ecovillage Findhorn. The woods were initially the setting of performances of A Midsummer’s Day Dreams and later in the summer she put on a trilogy of eco-theatre productions around ‘What Matters?’ linking people to the environment. These events were inspirational and well attended- going forward we hope to see more use of our land in this way. It would be good to have a write up of these events from Laura for the next newsletter. This time around she was too busy as she got married using the green burial area as one of the venues.

 

 

June was also time to finally sort out the new sanctuary beams and columns that had been prepared two years previously from blown timber from Wilkies Wood. This involved transporting them down to the Conservation Hub where they were given a final scraping by an enthusiastic volunteer team led by our long term volunteer Chris before being delivered by our tractor to the new sanctuary site. It is good to see them being finally used in the construction of this important building. An additional event in June was the Forres Academy Biology field trip – this was the third year in a row that this happened with about fifty students here to carry out their practical studies on the land helped by the FHT team.

This was another great success and with £3500 successful funding from the Newbold Legacy Trust marked the start of an official three year partnership with the school based around our Dune Restoration Project – it will be exciting to see how this further involvement with local young people develops. Towards the end of the month we held our first official practical beekeeping weekend workshop although John Willoner was not well at the time and the other core bee team member Martin Harker was only available on the Sunday. It was attended by young and elderly local people and allowed us to do lots of practical exploring and catch up with the management of the hives, many of whom were having a hard time due to cold or rainy weather this summer. We will definitely look to repeat this course in other years to give more people the opportunity of these experiences.

Before I left for sailing and immediately on my return I did a couple of public engagement events. The first was at the end of June and involved a FHT presentation to 150 soldiers at the Kinloss Barracks as part of their Global Charge initiative – all service personnel have the opportunity to get actively involved in volunteering to help with global issues of the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis for three days in June. Good connections were made with their newly created army conservation group and there is potential to develop this important link. At the beginning of August the presentation was to the Forres Rotary Club ( see write up elsewhere) and again this was well received and a follow up event in autumn is expected.

I was aware that in July there was a Medical Herbal walk that was put on by expert Heather Luna, a friend of Henry Fosebrook which used the Woodland Garden and Outdoor Learning Space as a base.

In August it was so lovely to finally have the wedding of community members Laura and Manuel taking place in the Green Burial space after so many funerals with the joyous couple using it to consciously connect with the natural world by having this part happen here before a reception and evening event in the Universal Hall. FHT has been involved with developing the Park Ecovillage Findhorn Local Place Plan which is looking at the possible physical development of the ecovillage from now until 2037 and got involved in the environmental part of this by carrying out a walk and talk on the land and a presentation in the Hall on the 25th August.

Another initiative I am involved with, partially with my FHT hat on, is as Chair of the Education Circle enabling educational courses here at the Park Ecovillage Findhorn. Very important to us is the development of the visit ecovillage Findhorn website which will be an essential tool to market more widely the educational courses we and others wish to put on – please do have a look, sign up and encourage others to do so. Thank you as this will affect the long term sustainability of what we do.

 

Towards the end of the month and into the beginning of September there has been another flurry of events including our first physical bee inspection since June which revealed that despite the neglect this year there was some honey extraction possible. The others were the Butterfly Conservation event involving moth trapping on the dunes (see report elsewhere), a very successful Chunky Bench Making Workshop led by Steven Porter and I and important drone monitoring work by ecologist James Bunyan more of which you will find out about in our next newsletter.

All in all another busy and productive season with a good variety of events happening and being enjoyed. I have been particularly happy with the way our Conservation Hub has been really serving us as the physical base for much of this activity. Thanks go once again to all who contributed to that build and continue to give so much to the work on this special piece of land and this thriving charity.

Hand lenses let you see nature’s detail

Warm regards,

Jonathan Caddy
FHT Chair
September 12th 2024

Posted in News

Dune Restoration Update

By Sean Reed | Published: 16/09/2024

We are very much looking forward to a visit from the charity Butterfly Conservation on Sunday 1st September. Tracy Munro (Species on the Edge Project) and Dr Tom Prescott (Head of Conservation) will be holding a mothing event at 10:30, at the Conservation Hub. Moths will be caught overnight and then viewed together, before being released unharmed back to their dune homes. We hope to see you there!

Did you know that the Findhorn Dunes are home to around 400 species of moths?! These include rare dune specialists such as the Portland and Lyme Grass moths. There are also records for even rarer species, such as Caryocolum blandelloides, new to science as recently as 1981 and with a UK range limited to dune systems in the western Moray Firth. Findhorn Dunes are also the most important site in Scotland for the moth Scythris empetrella, known from only one other place.Portland Moth

Moths are just one group of super-rare species found on the dunes. There are many others, including flies, wasps, leaf hoppers, lichens, and fungi. Indeed, our dunes are of national importance for biodiversity.

Red-banded sand wasp. Alan Watson Featherstone

The dunes were historically part of the second largest sand dune system in Europe, but only small fragments of this wild ecosystem now remain, and those that do – including the Hinterland Area – are threatened by gorse encroachment. Healthy sand dune ecosystems have around 5% gorse cover, but in the Hinterland area its more like 90%, as you can see in the aerial photo. This is not a natural situation, its the result of the wind-sheltering effect of houses and plantation woodland, so that sand is no longer able to blow about, as it naturally would.

The Findhorn Hinterland Trust recognises the urgency of the world-wide biodiversity crisis and the importance of local action to restore rare habitats. The Trust has been clearing scrub over recent years using hand tools and volunteer work parties, but action on a larger scale is needed to restore sand dune habitats and secure the future of threatened species.

Thanks to your generous support we are now in the final stages of planning this year’s dune restoration work – converting around half a hectare of dense gorse to bare sand. The only way we can practically do this is with heavy machinery. The work will hopefully take place over five days in November. We will be using a forestry mulcher and then scraping back to bare sand with a large excavator. This may appear to be destructive, but please rest assured that we are using best practice methods to revitalise out dunescape. Similar work was done in 2020 at Heathneuk, as part of the North Whins ecological enhancement measures, has been very successful. Please do pop in and to have a look – you would never know that a big digger had opened this area up just four years ago.

Our local contact at the RSPB, Project Officer David Tompkins, recently sent us links to a conference on sand dune restoration in Wales . It is very interesting to see the scope and scale of sand dune restoration taking place elsewhere in the UK, and the various methods used. One of the things that stood out to me was the importance of newly-created bare sand for rare sand dune invertebrates, explained in Mike Howe’s presentation, in Session 2.

Please help us with this important project by keeping a safe distance from the machinery and by explaining to others how important this work is in restoring natural ecological processes and the precious biodiversity of our dunes.

Sean Reed,
Sand Dune Restoration Project

 

Posted in News

Bats by Saille Mawson

By Saille Mawson | Published: 16/09/2024
(Photo courtesy of Aileen Salway of a brown long-eared bat)

(Photo courtesy of Aileen Salway of a brown long-eared bat)

Bats are our only flying mammal. Due to a 55% decline in numbers since the 1960’s in the UK, their breeding and resting places are protected by law.

Bats are also the inspiration of much ghoulish folklore and are of course rolled out in costume form on Halloween accompanying witches and vampires !

The oldest bat fossils though tell us an amazing story which is that they have been on the earth for 52 million years ! Surely any species that has been around this long deserves our curiosity and respect.

Here in the Park Ecovillage Findhorn, where I have lived since 2012, we are lucky to have a small but widespread bat population.

My own love affair with bats began when I was 4 years old and living in a Cumbrian keep. I remember being woken by my dad one night and with great excitement being brought down stairs with my brother. There, attached to the sitting room curtain, was a bat that had somehow ventured inside.

I marvelled at the sight of such a tiny creature with long ears which looked decidedly weird. Added to which it was hanging upside down which seemed even more peculiar. This certainly spiked my curiosity.

My hope for our coming generations is that they too will have magical, real life bat encounters that will make them want to protect and care for this species as they are truly extraordinary creatures.

Recently between April- August 2024, I carried out a bat survey in Park Ecovillage Findhorn and surrounds.

This was prompted by the fact that our human settlement is going through a lot of change. As more development is being discussed, I wanted to get a more detailed picture of what bat species live here; what habitats they are using and where they are roosting so that we can not only protect them but also help them thrive.

One of the Findhorn communities foundational values that drew me to live here is ‘co creation with nature’. People have different ways of interpreting what this means to them of course. For me, co creation can only really begin when we first truly get to know species other than ourselves, through observation and from that learn what their needs are. Then the partnership can begin !

My research methods in the survey developed as I went along. I started off with a heterodyne bat detector. Going out just before sunset (around which time most bats emerge from their roosts.)

This detector makes the echolocation calls made by some bat species audible to the human ear.

The common pipistrelle, actually makes really loud high frequency sounds at around 120 decibels. At 80 decibels we humans need to wear noise protectors. So perhaps it is just as-well that pipistrelle calls are outside our normal human hearing range otherwise it could be quite deafening to be out at dusk !

As I have mentioned bats navigate using a remarkable system, shared by dolphins and whales, called echolocation. They create sound pictures of their environment by emitting high frequency calls which bounce back to them off objects.

A fleshy spike called a tragus in the bats ears receives and interprets the sound telling it how far away an object is. This helps them map their environment, move around safely and most importantly locate insects with incredible accuracy.

A single common pipistrelle bat can devour up to 3000 midges a night. Definitely a reason why we in Scotland might be grateful to them !

Food types vary slightly between species but in general it is insects: mosquitos , beetles , lacewings , spiders and moths.

Once I had located areas where the bats were with the heterodyne detector, I then set up an additional static anabat swift bat detector loaned by NESBATS. This is a more sophisticated detector, which can help distinguish between bat species with greater accuracy by recording bat sounds to an SD card which can then be read as a sonograph on a computer.

The recordings I made were kindly interpreted for me by ecologist and bat specialist, Aileen Salway of NESBATS.

What emerged is exciting.

As expected the most prevalent species in nearly all recordings was the common pipistrelle.

In Hinterland 3 species : common and soprano pipistrelle (both small bats) and Brown long-eared bats were all present.

The sonograph showed that bat activity was high on the nights recorded there on the ride that straddles the south of the woodland burial ground.

Bats use tree lines and hedges for commuting i.e travelling from their homes (roosts) to their foraging areas. So land features that support their echolocation in this way are incredibly important .

Grass rich edge areas and tree canopy also provide a good source of food for bats and the hinterland has been carefully thought out to provide both.

The brown long-eared bat has, I believe, already been documented in the Hinterland so it is good to see it showing up again on these recordings.

These bats have exceptional hearing due to their long ears and tend to live in and hunt near woodland. They have a slower flight and can hover and take insects off leaves or grass. Moths are their favourite food.They tend to be more difficult to see due to their later emergence in the night than other species.

The bat recordings from Cullerne Garden’s pond identified all the above species plus one more: the natterers bat.

This bat also showed up in the north end of Mr Bickens land bordering the ecovillage and in Pineridge by the quiet garden. It is a medium sized bat characterised by its slightly white underbelly and is less common. It likes areas withwater but will also feed in pine plantations

An interesting project in in Tentsmuir forest in Fife has found natterers maternity roosts sometimes high up in mature Corsican and Scot’s pine where the main trunk branch has divided creating a crevice.

Identifying roosts is challenging as bats will roost in different places at different times of year. The locations can range from in mature trees under thick bark flaps and hollows to attic roof spaces and under soffits and tiles.

Females tender to gather together to form maternity roosts in May/June where they raise just one pup a year who they feed on their own milk for 3 weeks.

They tend to look for very warm, dry places that are sheltered for this purpose.

The young are particularly vulnerable to predation by cats when learning to fly in August as they sometimes get stuck on the ground.

So one way you can help bats in your area is to keep your moggies in at night over this month !

Mating roosts are taken up in Sept/Oct time and hibernation roosts are also scouted out for the Winter.

Gradually as the weather gets colder and there are less insects bats will begin to spend more and more time in torpor eventually going into full hibernation in November.

During hibernation, a bat’s heartbeat can drop to about 20 beats per minute.

Hibernation sites need to be cool and at a constant temperature, usually between 0-9C, where the bats will stay over the Winter until as late as April in Scotland.

Obviously this pattern of changing roosts at different times in their yearly cycle can make bats vulnerable to human activity.

So tree felling, especially of those with roost potential, over the Winter and demolition or renovation of old buildings at any time needs to be done with care and awareness of what bat signs to look for.

Mapping roosts is a useful step in this process to avoid unwittingly causing harm to a bat population.

It is also a task which demands a lot of time and patience. Tracking which direction the bats are flying in and back tracking to see where they are emerging from. As well as looking for other tell tale signs such as bat droppings or moth wings and watching potential sites for that critical moment just either side of sunset when most bats emerge.

If you feel inspired to get involved in mapping bats and their habitat on the Findhorn peninsular, please do get in touch with me. I would love to hear from you.

Saille Mawson

(Nesbats member and committee member for Scottish WildLife Trust NE Branch) [email protected]

Posted in News

Meet the Team – Birgit Carow

By jonathan.caddy | Published: 16/09/2024

Birgit has lived in the Park Ecovillage Findhorn with her daughter Olivia for about seven years and has been involved with the FHT for the last three. She is a valued and important member of the FHT team who enriches our organisation with her smiling face and positive attitude as well as the marketing and design skills she brings from her home country of Austria. What follows is a little bit about her story and involvement. Enjoy!

What inspired your love of nature?
My journey started in my late teenage years when I first discovered hiking in Austria – I was brought up in a small town surrounded by mountains but my parents were not outdoor people so it was only at this older age that I started to engage by sleeping in huts and tents with lots of lakes to swim in. In my early thirties I was then drawn to a wilderness school with all its ancient wisdom much from native american culture. We would learn to make fires using a bow and sleep outdoors when it was snowing using a tarp – these were beautiful experiences. Now as a mum it is also really beautiful as when my daughter Olivia was small this gave me many chances to be outdoors with her here in Scotland and do all the fun stuff like collecting, pressing flowers, gathering flower bunches, making leaf prints etc. There is lots of fun stuff for kids to do outdoors and it is great for adults too! This led me to start the Fledglings Group in Wilkies Wood in the Findhorn Hinterland. The initial motivation was to find a way to bring parents together whilst also giving time to let the kids play outdoors. We saw how great this was for the children. Sometimes we organised some activities for them but most of the time they made their own entertainment together. A fire was important as a centre point around which these gatherings would happen. It was about being there and having a commitment to show up in the woods every Friday morning. It was during the time of Covid when all of us particularly needed and greatly appreciated this.

What sort of work were you involved in during your working life?
My background is in marketing and design which I studied in Austria. I worked using these talents and skills with an Austrian company that is involved in furniture design, textiles as well as cosmetics and has very high environmental standards. I still do some work for them which includes marketing, writing sustainability and CO2 balance reports etc. Coming to Findhorn I realised that having both these talents was useful particularly to small organisations that do not have large separate marketing and design departments. My gift here is being able to offer these things in a package – asking questions and then being able to translate needs into a visual design to help market a product. At present I work with both the Phoenix and the Findhorn Hinterland Trust here at the Park Ecovillage Findhorn.

Why did you decide to get involved in the work of the trust and how have you been able to contribute?
My way into the FHT was very organic. It started by living with my family in your house in Bagend on the edge between community and everything that the trust looks after. I started to go to FHT work parties planting trees when Olivia was one. During the pandemic our family decided to take on the Woodland Garden – we were there most days enjoying seeing what was coming up on its own. This came about as I had got to know Ariane Burgess, who is now a Green Scottish MSP, by helping to finish off the Outdoor Learning Space building in the garden so we naturally got involved in the actual gardening. I was inspired by her helping to set up the garden and I wanted to give something back. It is a beautiful place particularly with a child who can then move around freely. Conversations with you followed and I became more aware of what the FHT does. I could see how I might be able to offer something by using my marketing skills to reach out to more people about the beautiful and fulfilling things the trust does. It is so inspiring the large number of things it is involved in which I don’t think most people notice. I think it is often taken for granted that we have these woods, these fire pits and shelters where we can meet. I do not take it for granted, it is very special and I am very grateful for those that started it and the people that come with the energy to volunteer. There is so much knowledge and passion that is being shared by various people. To have some paid work was ideal for me to be able to pay my rent when I split up with my partner so it was a win/win for everyone.

What aspects have you found most satisfying with regards to the FHT work that you have been involved in?
It really satisfies me when I do something and I see the impact it has. For example this spring when we did the fundraiser for the Big Give match funding appeal for the Dune Restoration Project. Coming up with marketing ideas that are a bit different to be able to reach people and come up with enough money to have a big impact in our backyard to save some species that may not have survived otherwise. If I do something really well with good energy there is something that comes in return and results in improving something in the future. Since I am a mum I think this is especially important to me. I was also involved in the design work of the Conservation Hub as part of the team where I found I could help with my skills and gifts. I have experienced how people coming to work parties feel after putting in three hours of work on the land – they connect to land, other people and who is holding the morning. They might gain some insight into what is special on this land, see how everyone can have an impact and learn what goes into caring for land or building a building in a different way.

What would be your high dream for the FHT be if anything was possible?
That it is a strong and solid organisation that has the set up and means to continue to do and expand what it already does so well including inspiring and involving more people. Establishing this as a place that people know that they can come to and find peace, rest and connection. A place where they can contribute as well as just be whilst knowing that someone looks after it. I would like it to be a place where people know that it is here and is available to nurture them on all levels. I would also like to find ways to bring all these beings that are so small and significant into the spotlight so that when we walk on the land we know more stories about what is going on. The passionate people here have these stories so that we can share them more and change human perceptions. We could make them big and have stories told through drama and creative storytelling for both children and adults. I am deeply grateful for the trust, the passionate people involved, and the enthusiasm of the team members to share, do and get things done.

Interviewed by Jonathan Caddy
August 2024

Posted in News

FINDHORN HINTERLAND TRUST MOTHING EVENT SUNDAY 1st SEPTEMBER

By Sean Reed | Published: 16/09/2024

There was a very good turn-out for a mothing event last Sunday at Wilkies Wood, Park Ecovillage Findhorn. The event was hosted by local charity the Findhorn Hinterland Trust, who manage around thirty hectares of land adjoining the Ecovillage.

Experts from Butterfly Conservation and the Species on the Edge project deployed nine moth traps on the dunes overnight. Moths were then viewed in the woodland on a beautifully sunny morning, before being carefully released unharmed back into their habitat.

The dunes at Findhorn are nationally important for rare plants and insects, supporting over four hundred species of moths. Despite it being an unseasonably cold night there was a surprisingly large catch of the moths, with over fifty species recorded, including striking species like the Canary-shouldered Thorn.

Pete Moore, Chair of the Highlands and Islands branch of Butterfly Conservation, explained how moths are undergoing dramatic declines due to habitat loss, but also how moths new to the area appear each year, due to our changing climate. Pete said: “I always wake up with a sense of excitement after trapping for moths at a new site, like a child on Christmas morning. I was delighted to see two species for the first time ever for me!”

The Species on the Edge project is a partnership of conservation organisations working to protect the most biodiverse coastal sites in Scotland. The Project raises the profile of these places and works with communities to restore threatened habitats, including through scrub removal. Tracy Munro, Project Officer for the East Coast, explained how places like Findhorn dunes are the last refuge for some of our most threatened species. Tracy said: “Linking special wildlife sites along the coast is key to securing the future for some of our rarest species. Moths aren’t just found in special places though. Gardens are also great for moths. Getting a closer look is as simple as hanging-up a white sheet overnight and getting up early the next day to see what you’ve got. It’s great fun and very addictive!”

Hinterland Trust Chair, Jonathan Caddy, described how he grew up playing on the dunes as a child and how being surrounded by nature there had inspired him to go on to study ecological science at Edinburgh University, saying: “Events like this are a fantastic way to inspire the next generation of people who will take care of our natural environment. It’s a real privilege to be able to give back to a landscape which has given me so much.”

 

 

Ecologist Sean Reed explained that the Hinterland Trust is embarking on a dune ecosystem restoration project, starting this November. The project will convert half a hectare of dense gorse into pristine bare sand. Sean said: ”The aim is to connect-up the few remaining refuges of high quality dune heath habitats and restart the natural process of wind-blown sand in these areas. The work may appear to be destructive while it is taking place, but it is a vital part of our wildlife conservation work and the land will very quickly take-on a natural appearance afterwards.”

 

 

Sean Reed
Ecologist

Posted in News

News from the Land – Summer 2024

By Kajedo Wanderer | Published: 16/09/2024

‘I ask for a moment’s indulgence to sit by Thy side.
The works that i have in hand
I will finish afterwards…’

(R.Tagore)

As the first day of September – and the end of the summer – is fast approaching, I sit under a tree and pause to reflect on the abundance of these last months…

Out on the ‘fallen acres’ a 17 strong ‘vision quest’ group from Central Europe is preparing for their solo time in the wilder parts of our land.

While throughout the summer we’ve had a slow trickle of campers and the occasional event at the shelter- it is great that now that every camping pad is occupied by a tent, and there are even some tents on the tracks through the birches. It is the only time this summer that we had the camping pads and the shelter area being so busy for 10 days.

While much of the world is heating up at alarming rates it seems that here in the North of Scotland things are getting cooler. We’ve had a fresh and damp summer. Yes, there were days of working in shorts and T-shirt, but overall it was never too hot for the strong physical work required on the land.

Over the last months we have been blessed with committed volunteers willing to show up every day – in exchange for staying in our ‘Shepherd’s Hut’ or the bell tent. Chris, from California, our Shepherd’s Hut resident, Fern from Tasmania, who gave the Woodland Garden some much needed love & care, and Stuart from Australia stayed longer than intended and helped wherever needed.

Together we achieved a lot. Much of our time was spent with ‘prickly issues’ – cutting gorse. We maintained and improved all our areas of ‘species rich grassland’ and the now beautifully purple flowering heath lands. We cleared tracks and paths and fire-breaks. On one of the fire-breaks – which gets mowed every year – we counted 25 different species of flowers and grasses ! Together they provide an inviting home for a spectrum of insects and birds.

And many of our days are filled with numerous, unglamorous small jobs which are needed to be done to care for this land and all its creatures. Replacing fence posts on the pony fields, putting over 150 little trees into 1.20m tubes to protect them from the deer, replacing broken tree-stakes – or loading the tractor-trailer with woodchips to give our camping pads a fresh layer in preparation for the vision questers. Brambles were pulled up on newly planted areas, and baby trees have been dug up in areas where they would not have a future and potted to be planted out in the autumn.

Logs have been peeled in preparation for the imminent building of the new Sanctuary.

And within it all we have explored the deepening of the human connection with the surrounding natural world.

I often set tasks for the day beyond the physical work –

How can we stay curious ? (As a gateway to intimacy…)

Can you find something on the third day of doing the same job, something which you have not seen here before ? (findings ranged from flowers and fungi, to insects, to lizards…)

How can we move from looking at things to actually really seeing them ? What is the inner equivalent to the outer work we are doing ?

How can we turn our work into ‘worship’ – an offering of our devotion ?

Well, the harvesting season is about to begin. Apples & pears are nicely ripening in the gardens, so are the wild plums on the land. We’ve snacked on the wild raspberries and now the first blackberries are ripe.

With the recent warm rains the mushrooms are finally poking their heads above the ground in great variety.

I am sure the many bright red berries which shine like rubies on the rowan trees are a happy sight for the birds.

And with that it seems right to sit quietly for a little while and consider our ‘inner harvest’ – as the summer comes to a close.

‘…Now it is time to sit quiet
Face to face with Thee,
And to sing dedication of life
In this silent and overflowing leisure.’

(R.Tagore)

Posted in News

Report Article from Forres Rotary Club Presentation – 1st August 2024

By Tanya Barker | Published: 16/09/2024

As part of reaching out and promoting the work of the Trust I took up the offer of member Lorraine Warshaw to give a presentation to the Forres Rotary Club which was a fun thing to do and was very well received. It was good to connect with some old school friends but also other locals I have worked or interacted with over the years. One of these was Tanya McLaren now Tanya Barker who for many years was a reporter for the local paper the Forres Gazette. For fun she wrote a little report on the event which you can have a look at below. Some of the facts are not totally accurate which was always the case with Tanya but her genuine appreciation given during the Q&A session after the presentation of the work of the trust and the long journey it has taken to develop its work was most heart warming.

Jonathan Caddy
FHT Chair

Forres Rotary hosted retired local teacher, Jonathan Caddy, as speaker for one of their August evening meetings, held at the Mosset Tavern.

Mr Caddy spoke to Rotarians about the Findhorn Hinterland Trust which was originally formed in 2015 as the Hinterland Group to manage a large parcel of land which encompasses dunelands and the former Wilkie’s Wood on the edge of Findhorn.

The organisation was originally created to manage the 35 hectares, following a meeting in the James Milne Institute in Findhorn where Mr Caddy explained that although Duneland Ltd had purchased the area that it was a huge area to manage and would be in the interests of the community to jointly manage some of the land outwith the Ecovillage, so working in partnership could begin to protect the fragile dunes area which was included.

Forres Rotarian and former Forres Gazette editor, Tanya Barker was at the meeting and recalled the atmosphere at the JMI (James Milne Institute) was originally suspicious of the offer to jointly manage land, given plans to build homes on the outer edge of the Foundation were taking shape, and there was confusion about what was actually being proposed.

“It was a very long and at times, a very volatile meeting, where a room full of people all wanted to have their say,” she said. “I had to go back to the office and write a story which captured the main essence of what was being proposed without showing bias. Thankfully, things progressed quickly, and the community headed up by a small group embraced the idea of working together to try and protect the fragile dunes area. It is clear to me from speaking to Jonathon recently that obstacles have been overcome and the Hinterland has benefited from community involvement over the years.”

Mr Caddy explained to Rotarians via a powerpoint presentation, that as well as a green burial site which has been created there, existing alongside the eco-village that following a lot of work, the Hinterland Trust has now successfully achieved official recognition of some of the extremely rare lichen and other fauna and flora that exist near Findhorn, which demonstrates the ongoing need to protect the duneland area for future generations.

President Jackie Stephen thanked the speaker for an interesting and informative talk which included information about future plans including the Dune Restoration Project and an offer was made for Rotarians to go along to have a look at the site and work being done there.

The Hinterland group is also holding a Moth Trapping Event on September 1st where moths caught overnight will be viewed before being released. And a walk and talk open to the public is due to take place on November 2nd with more information available on www.findhornhinterland.org

Tanya Barker

Posted in News

Vision Quest – A Support for Life Transition

By Jakob Reitberger | Published: 16/09/2024

21st-31st September

Spiral into the centre
The centre of the wheel
I am the weaver, I am the woven one
I am the dreamer, I am the dream
Song of the natives

Holger and Gesa Heiten were the leaders of this vision quest that I have just completed that took place on land managed by the Findhorn Hinterland Trust over the last ten days. Holger in particular has had a long, forty year connection with the Findhorn community (the Park Ecovillage Findhorn) having initially come here when he was eighteen. He was so impressed and influenced that he has been coming back every year since. He is also connected to native american elders through the School of Lost Borders and for many years has had his own organisation, the Eschwege Institut, which is involved in gestalt therapy that supports life transitions.

The sixteen strong group that came to the Findhorn ecovillage this year was made up of the leaders with their older teenage daughter, four assistants/ apprentices and nine participants. The group was based around the Woodland Shelter in Wilkes Wood where we camped on the bark camping pads- I found it particularly pleasant to sleep on the soft and warm bark of the purpose built pads. We were so blessed to be in such a beautiful place to do this kind of retreat and I felt it was perfect for this sort of experience involving a rite of passage. There was something important in this particular landscape to do with the connection between the land and the sea. This landscape seemed to reflect my internal landscape and it was so good to simplify back to the bare bones of life during this experience. On this land there are a lot of mini habitats with moss, insects and lichens that grow on poor nutrients and hardship. Only in such extreme conditions with poor nutrients,drought and variable temperatures do you get such abundance of special species. This hot spot zone was a key for me as I came to see how I could grow having less around me in my life.

Let me introduce myself. I am Jakob Reitberger 44, a handicraft/technical Montessori teacher for class 5-10 in Eichstaett, Bavaria, Germany. I am married with four children 23, 20, 13 and 10 – two boys and two girls. I have worked in the school for thirteen years and two years ago there was a change in leadership in our school which became one of my struggles. I also had a winter sport accident this last year and later experienced paralysis in my face which shocked me and was the reason that I felt I needed to take a pause in my life – I felt totally broken! I love my wife and children very much but they seemed to have different needs from what I felt was essential and important for me at this time. This was tearing me apart and was part of the backpack of challenges I came with. Others in the group came with lighter and some with heavier packs but all felt it was beneficial to have others here to help them heal, move on and grow in their lives.

The core of this experience/ritual of this retreat was to stay in solo time for 100 hours which involved going out with a tarp and something to drink to fast in a place that only you know. You stay there and be with yourself. Before going out and when you come back there is a process so that you can get the most out of the experience and then be able to integrate it. For me it felt like I was cutting up the old pieces of my life to create both a seed and compost to help grow a new essence to help me move forward. After the experience I feel very connected and bonded with the earth as well as feeling still, calm, full of enthusiasm, boldness and daring.

Every day during the retreat, from the human doing to the human being, we dove deep into listening to nature outside and inside us – we were re-naturing the human being. A life transition is a time where the old things including deep wounds are faced, acknowledged, appreciated and transformed. A pause in life creates the possibility to process and integrate the struggle of life. It is possible to bury old beliefs.

I am not new to the idea of a vision quest as fifteen years ago I had taken part in one in Sweden. What I received there helped me look at life in a different way – to see how my life is like a swaying grass stem that moves in the wind but always comes back near to the quiet and stillness of the centre. It helped me see that the things around us are like the wind. This experience sustained me until the upheavals of the last two years. I wanted to come here because I knew and was touched by Holger’s and Gesa’s work and also wanted to connect particularly with the Findhorn Ecovillage and other communities as I lived for one year in a yoga ashram, Yoga Vida, in Germany and am connected with some other communities there such as Templehof in Bavaria.

At this moment I feel brave and with this fresh energy and direction am ready to go back to Germany with a courageous and open heart and new thoughts to share with my children, group and school family. I feel I have let the old things go and am able to return fresh and enthusiastic. Because of facial paralysis, for three months I had had to give up my teaching but now I feel I can go back and return to work helped greatly by this vision quest experience and so thankful that my facial paralysis has almost faded away. A huge thank you to Holger and Gesa, the vision quest magic, this community and the special landscape that has helped my personal transformation to happen.

Whatever you do and dream you can, begin it. Just begin it
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it
Just begin it!

Goethe

Written by Jakob Reitberger
Vision Quest Participant

Posted in News
Findhorn Hinterland Trust, Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) SC045806
228 Pineridge, Findhorn, Forres, Moray IV36 3TB