Loch Ness community bid to save 513-acre Highlands estate owned by former Greenpeace director

A community in the Highlands confirmed it is exploring options to buy some or all of a prized estate near Loch Ness.

The 513-acre Bunloit estate, in Glen Urquhart, on the western shores of the famous Scottish loch, is owned by Highlands Rewilding Ltd.

Earlier this month, the company’s founder Jeremy Leggett, a former Greenpeace director, announced he was having to sell his estates to pay back an £11 million loan he took out to help purchase them for nature restoration.

Mr Leggett said local communities would get first refusal and had until December 10 to submit a bid.

A local community in the Highlands has agreed to explore the purchase of some or all of the 513-acre Bunloit estate by Loch Ness. | Supplied

Following a public consultation in Glenurquhart this week, the Glen Urquhart Rural Community Association (GURCA), with the support of charity Trees for Life, said it was progressing with putting in a bid for Bunloit.

Jeremy Leggett, chief executive of Highlands Rewilding, who said communities have first refusal as buyers of the company’s estates on sale | Highlands Rewilding.

Susan Griffin, chairperson for GURCA, said: “We have decided to explore this rare opportunity for a community buyout, given that Highlands Rewilding founder and chief executive Jeremy Leggett has said the local community will have first refusal on any purchase.”

GURCA and Trees for Life said any community purchase of all or some of Bunloit would be “to protect and restore habitats to tackle the nature and climate emergencies, while generating local benefits including nature-based jobs, better health, and re-peopling.”

Steve Micklewright, chief executive of Trees for Life, said: “We will be fully supporting the community as it investigates the purchase of land at Bunloit for what could be an exciting model of locally led rewilding to restore biodiversity and enrich lives.”

Highlands Rewilding has until January to pay off the loan with the UK Infrastructure Bank and Top Online Partners. Further details of the land-sale at Bunloit, and the company’s two other estates on sale, will be made public on October 1.

The Scotsman has seen brochures showing the company’s Beldorney Estate, a listed castle and 351-hectares estate in Aberdeenshire, bought by the company in 2021, is going up for sale at £5m.

Meanwhile, the company’s 514-hectare estate across Ulva and the Isle of Danna on the Tayvallich Peninsula is going on the market for £4.25m.

In a statement on its website, Highlands Rewilding said: “We will give preference to local communities wanting to buy the plots of land we are offering so long as we are able to fulfil our obligations to our 809 shareholders. We have three priority categories of land sale and our local communities come first in all of them.”

The company also confirmed it does not have to sell to the highest bidder.

Failing a bid from communities, Mr Leggett said the next priority would go to land buyers “prepared to guarantee nature recovery and community prosperity in perpetuity through establishment of a dedicated Trust, with HRL partnered as land manager, sharing natural capital proceeds“.

He did warn there was a chance the company would be forced to sell land to entities not interested in communities or landscape restoration, saying the loans “must be repaid online”.