Following a lot of work and a fairly long legal process, the Culduthel Woods are now (from June 2022) legally owned by the Culduthel Woods Group. Thanks to colleagues at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, The Highland Council, the lochardil and Drummond Community Council and at the firm Murchison Law in Inverness (and many others) for helping us get to this stage.

A legal review of land-ownership was commissioned by the Culduthel Woods Steering Group in 2018/19 and we found out that:

• Up until 2002 the woods (extending to around 5 to 6 Ha.) and some surrounding land were owned by a company called Tullochs Homes (Culduthel) Ltd. In 2002 the company was “dissolved voluntarily”, presumably because they had built all of the houses that they could, and had no further interest in the woods.

• In Scots law, the title of the land in such situations falls to the Crown, whose representative in Scotland is a little-known organisation called “The Queen’s and Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer” (QLTR) as it was called then - the organisation is now called the King's and Lord Treasurer's Rememberencer (KLTR). 

• In 2013/14 the QLTR corresponded with The Highland Council and the Community Council about the land – but neither organisation was inclined to, or able to take on ownership of the land at that time.

• The QLTR was not obliged to own or manage any land and, in July 2014, they formally "disclaimed" the land. This left the land and the woods technically ownerless. You can see their public notice about this process here.

• It is important to note that during all this period the trees were still protected by the Highland Council’s Tree Preservation Order and that it was then, and is now, an offence for any person to cut or prune a tree without permission.
• You can find out more about the process through which the land came into communty ownership here.