In November 2020 Dunans Castle Limited purchased over 100 hectares of the hill above and behind the castle. There were c. 20ha. of standing commercial timber, a similar amount of Native Woodland, and just over 60ha of bare hillside.
The acquisition was motivated by the opportunity to create a secondary access to the castle, making the restoration both easier and more affordable. However, it soon became apparent that there were significant opportunities around harvest of timber and woodland creation.
Carbon Offset at Dunans
In Spring 2024 Dunans Castle Limited launched the preliminary pre-certification offset scheme with One-tonne, One-year, Five-year, Decade and Lifetime Carbon Offset gift packages, as well as ten-tonne and one-hundred tonne corporate packages.
Each gift package not only helps reduce the recipient’s carbon footprint, but also contributes to the recovery of the Scottish Temperate Rainforest on the West Coast of Scotland, increases local biodiversity and natural resilience, and helps to create a public amenity, community woodland project for the next century.
While these benefits might be expected by the Carbon Offsetter, what is truly unique about the Dunans Castle Woodland Carbon Offset project is that any surplus derived from the sale of Carbon Offsets will be used in the sustainable restoration of Dunans Castle itself. This multi-decade project is recovering one of Argyll’s Lost Mansions and will be the end of 2024 have fully restored the A-listed, Thomas Telford-designed, Dunans Bridge.
Each gift package contains:
- Certificate of Offset, personalised and including the serial number(s) for the offset
- Map of Dunans Castle Woodland, showing the intended plantings, pathways and location of the Dunans Castle.
- Letter from the directors of Dunans Castle Limited
- Invitation to visit the Woods as well as the restoration project
- The Carbon Offset information leaflet
Each purchase also endows the recipient with the right to wear the Dunans Rising tartan for the contribution to the restoration of the castle.