From forest to a field of dreams - and then back to nature again

Part of the Bowhill Estate, near the Borders town of Selkirk, is being transformed into an arena which will play host to around 1000 spectators for the one-off occasion - which will be part of a UK-wide Cultural Olympiad next summer.

Under Fife artist Craig Coulthard's vision, which has won a 475,000 National Lottery grant, the pitch will become a permanent attraction, with trees planted in the spots where football players normally line up.

Two matches - one for men, the other for women - will be played out by amateur footballers, who must have secured British citizenship over the last 11 years and live in Scotland.

Potential players will be put through trials over the next few months to find the most talented performers.

Around 200 trees have been felled in the shape of a full-size pitch after Mr Coulthard won agreement from the Duke of Buccleuch to stage the venture on his vast estate just days before the London Olympics get under way in July 2012. Mr Coulthard, 30, said: "I was brought up in Germany until I was 11 and actually played football on a forest pitch like this.

"That was where the original idea came from."

"We had to find a site that was pretty flat, even though it had to be covered in trees. It also had to be completely hidden away in a forest. We'll be making seating out of the felled trees and a shelter that the teams will use as a changing room.

Once the game is over the whole site will be replanted and native plants introduced before it is left to nature again."