Kilsture Forest Exchange Day
Saturday 28th June 2025 (for CWA members only)
Do you want to be inspired by others on a site visit to another community wood?
Well, following the success and highlights of our recent exchange visits to Tarras Valley, Dronley Community Woodland, Dunnet Community Forest and our trio of sites in West Lothian, we are excited to be offering you an opportunity to join us on an exchange visit to Dumfries and Galloway, to the beautiful Kilsture Forest.
A Bit of Background
Kilsture Forest is a 204 hectare even-aged, mixed woodland plantation surrounded by agricultural land on the Machars peninsula in Galloway.
The origins of Kilsture Forest Community Group (KFCG) lie in its successful campaign to save the forest from being sold into private hands by Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), in 2018. Instead of buying the forest outright, we entered into partnership with FLS. We began with a simple volunteer agreement, doing small-scale path-maintenance work. Since then, we’ve formalised our role through a Memorandum of Understanding, giving us a stronger voice and greater responsibility in looking after Kilsture.
Kilsture Forest’s Mission
To protect the forest’s well-being and enhance access for local communities—now and for the future.
What to expect during the visit
10:30 – Welcome & Refreshments Meet at the forest car park.
We'll give a brief intro to our three main projects:
Kilsture 1000: Mapping the Ecosystem - A Citizen Science programme aiming to identify 1,000 species, assess woodland condition, and map the forest ecosystem.
Art | Science | Forest - This programme still in early stages, brings together an artist, a scientist and a forester to think together across disciplines about how best to support a healthy, climate resilient future for the forest
Forest School - Our pilot programme bringing forest-based learning to all primary school children in the Machars.
11:00 – Wildlife Recording - We’ll demonstrate how to record wildlife using iNaturalist and other methods. Then in pairs, you’ll be invited to explore and document a 1m² patch of forest floor. We’ll regroup to share discoveries.
12:30 – Lunch Break
13:30 – Woodland Condition Survey - We’ll give a brief introduction to woodland condition assessment methodology and associated app based on our recent training as ‘citizen surveyors’. Then, in pairs, you’ll carry out a sample survey of a small area of the forest and report back.
15:00 – Forest Hydrology Walk - With support from Galloway Fisheries, we’re mapping the forest’s water systems. We’ll walk to a wetland site and discuss ideas for restoring natural water flow through the forest and how it would support biodiversity.
What You'll Learn
How KFCG works with FLS to represent community interests
How we use Citizen Science to build our understanding of forest ecology
How we’re planning for the future of the woodland
And most importantly—how we can learn from each other
Where is Kilsture Forest?
Kilsture Forest can be found at W3W: ///skimmers.movies.betrayal or you can find your directions here.
Cost
There is no charge to attend this exchange visit, but you will need to cover the costs of travel and potential accommodation.
As a group member of CWA, you will have access to some funding through the Community Learning Exchange. Funding will be managed differently this year, with CWA applying for funding on behalf of its members due to different limitations from our funders, the Community Learning Exchange. Once we know how many people will attend, we can establish the level of costs we can support. Should you wish to apply for funding to cover transport, and potential accommodation, then please complete this form. All receipts would need to be submitted to CWA before payment/ partial payment of expenses.
Note to individual members - Individual members are always welcome to our exchange visits! If you are seeking funding through the Community learning Exchange you would need to be able to provide evidence of how you will ensure the knowledge gleaned from this exchange would benefit your wider community, and not solely yourself.
Please note – to encourage members with families, Kilsture Forest are offering the opportunity for children to attend Forest School ‘Creche’ to run alongside the exchange.
Travel
Getting to Kilsture Forest without a car is extremely difficult, so travelling by car is really the only option. There may be options for car-sharing depending on those who sign up for this visit, but please only commit to attending if you have access to car transport.
Join us! Complete the sign up form here
What have other said before about exchange visits in other community woodlands
“What a brilliant space, and clearly so well looked after. Thank you so much for being wonderful hosts. I learned a huge amount and the visit was an absolute highlight for me!”
“Thank you all for such an informative and well-planned site visit. It was great to meet so many of your team and hear about your different experiences and thoughts on your woodland.”
“A fantastic visit, thank you for a very in-depth explanation of your history, your working practices and aspirations for the future. Thank you for going the extra mile to take us on the woodland visit. The whole visit from start to finish was fascinating, I personally learnt a lot including things I didn't even realise I needed to know. I will be taking the information back to my team as I feel we can benefit greatly from the work you are doing. I especially learnt a lot about the tree nursery and hope to be able to visit again in the future when we are that bit closer to building our own nursery. The baking and cooking was also fantastic, what a treat. A truly excellent eye-opening and learning experience. Thank you.”
“The funding and the work by the CWA team has made community connections happen, enabling working relationships to be developed. This has enabled best practice and experiences to be shared which in turn supports groups to develop, good ideas to grow and flow benefiting us all.”
