Hay's Way meets with the Langholm Initiative and to hear about its evolved plans for Scotland's largest community buyout

The Scotsman

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00:00Hi, my name is Catherine Hay. I'm the Rural Affairs Correspondent at the Scotsman. I'm

00:23currently on a six-month walking trip around the country, which is titled Hay's Way. I've

00:29made it to, I'm on Langham Road, which is between Newcastleton and the Scottish borders

00:34and Langham, which is in Dumfries and Galway. So I'm not that far, I'm probably about five

00:39miles from the town over the border. And I'm currently standing with some land around me

00:46that was bought by the Langham Community Development Trust off the Duke of Buccleuch. So the purchase

00:53has made it the largest community buyout in the south of Scotland. I'll be meeting with

00:59members of the Development Trust to hear a little bit more about how it's been since

01:04the land here has been under community ownership, and what plans they have for it in the future.

01:10Be interesting to hear what it is that they have to share about how the project's gone

01:15since the community buyout happened a couple of years ago, and just to hear what ideas

01:20they have for the future of this place. The first lot was 2021, and then the second buyout

01:27was November 22. So we've just been really busy trying to get a grip of the land, learn

01:34about the land, that's been a big priority. And then getting to doing a lot of community

01:39engagement, that's been a really big focus for us to just revisit all the plans we put

01:44together in the buyout and see if that's still refreshing the mandate almost. So we're busy

01:49doing our five-year plan at the moment. And we've been, alongside the plans, we've been

01:55looking at peak restoration, so we're here tonight talking about that. And we're also

01:58looking at, we've done a few felling projects because Storm Arwen fast-tracked those along,

02:05so some of those restoration projects have happened sooner than planned. And we're also

02:09looking at some woodland creation projects at the moment as well, as a long sort of,

02:14in terms of restoration. And then we're also doing a lot with volunteering and bringing

02:19people on the land as well, through like our environmental education and outreach and that

02:23kind of thing. Our aspirations for the buyout have stayed really similar. So we were really

02:29clear at the beginning that we wanted to create a nature reserve, and that was the kind of,

02:35all the engagement we've done locally and beyond has stayed within that scope, that

02:40we're creating a nature reserve to support, as a tool to support community regeneration

02:45in Langham. And that's stayed the same really, but I think how we'll do it and how we'll

02:51get there and what we'll do and what kind of priorities. There's been some really interesting

02:56things crop up that maybe when we first were looking at buying the land, those things have,

03:01you know, just because we're in such a changing time, certain things haven't cropped up, but

03:06they have now with a lot of the community engagement. So that's why it was so important

03:09to revisit things and keep revisiting things and keep having conversations. So one of the

03:14things that's come up a lot is about like food production, and can we like look at community

03:20growing and how can the land sort of support local food security. So, you know, it's just

03:25really interesting to see what else comes up alongside. But in terms of like the overall

03:30goals, those things haven't changed. It's just how we get there, what we do within that.

03:34That's the scope for all the innovation really.

03:37I saw quite a lot of goats. I mean, is there a bit of a worry there because they're eating

03:42the new, the newly planted trees? I mean, there was talk about culling maybe at one

03:47point?

03:48I mean, I think at the moment, I mean, they've historically had management, but we haven't

03:53done any. And one of the things we're looking at is at the moment, we have a lot of natural

03:58regen happening. I don't know if you'll have seen it on the way over. So we've got some

04:02incredible...

04:03Oh, is that all natural?

04:04Yeah, all completely natural. Yeah. So I think there's a, what we're trying to do is look

04:09at sort of actual grazing pressure and look at like impact on the ground and is it an

04:14issue? Is it not? So one of the things we want to do is just actually collect the data

04:18and do lots of survey on the land. So we're just starting to look at that now. But at

04:23the moment the goats kind of move in, mob graze and move on. So they've got quite a

04:27naturalistic grazing pattern. They don't kind of stay in one area for a long time. So actually

04:33in some places they probably do help to give us like that mosaic that we might not get

04:39with anything else. So it's kind of, we're just kind of wanting to get the evidence first.

04:44But yeah, they're certainly an attraction. Yeah, they are. And they mean a lot to people.

04:52You know, they get a lot of people wanting to come and see the goats.

04:56That's me walking along the Langham Road towards Langham. I think I'm in Dumfries and Galway

05:03now. And you can see behind me, these are some of the supposedly feral goats that roam

05:14the Langham Moors. So there's a mum with her little one.

05:23So it's early days, but we're starting to look at how we can diversify our grazing and

05:27start to look at other animals and what kind of roles they can play in restoration of the

05:32land. So we've been visiting lots of different sites as well and starting to look at other

05:37places. So where we can look at sort of different types of cattle, ponies, and they'll all have

05:42different roles in terms of getting that dynamic sort of ecosystem and that dynamism back into

05:48the landscape. So it's something we're really excited about. And I think we can, you know,

05:52we can do something really, really exciting with the land and looking at a different way

05:56of grazing it.

05:57I think what we've found is that every year, every day, every week actually, you're learning

06:01something new, but that, you know, you get to a point where you've got to start making

06:05decisions and you've, but we will make mistakes. You know, there's no doubt about it, but that's

06:10part of it. You know, show me a landowner who doesn't, you know, you don't just come

06:15into it.

06:16Big learning curve.

06:17Yeah. So, but that's part of it. And there's lots of people locally who've got lots of

06:21local information and lots of help, but it's a bit about, everybody expects you to make

06:28changes really quickly or make decisions really quickly. And we're just trying to hold off.

06:33So we've always got a rationale for a decision. So at least we know why we've made it, even

06:37if it doesn't work out, you know, we know, and we can learn, learn from that. And hopefully

06:41so far it's, you know, we've, that's worked out okay. But it's like, you know, talking

06:46about grazing animals, it's a fantastic opportunity, but we've got to make sure we can look after

06:51them. How, how does it practically work on the land? You know, what level of intervention

06:56do you have in terms of vets? There's so many just little things. It's not just, oh,

07:00we'll go and put some, we'll go and put some belted Galloway on the land and they can look

07:04after themselves. It just doesn't work like that.

07:08So the Langham initiative, which is the landowner, the legal landowner, we're constituted to

07:15run for the benefit of like a certain, like three different postcode areas, which sit

07:20in Dumfries and Galloway and a little bit into the board, like TD9, which is like a

07:24little bit over, but we sit in Dumfries and Galloway. So that's the sort of community

07:29we work with most directly anyway, but there's a lot of people that are interested, a lot

07:34of people visit, a lot of people come from out of the area to volunteer and stuff. So

07:38that's another really big thing that we're starting to try and develop is kind of like

07:43an active volunteer network. So we're doing really well with it at the moment with coming

07:48to do, a lot of people interested in doing practical sessions and coming and getting,

07:52hands-on kind of helping with the land. So that's something we're really looking forward

07:57to developing further as well. And what was it about the buildings you said

08:00earlier, how many have you got on site? Yeah, we've got, on the two bits of land

08:06that we've bought in total, we've got nine properties, one of which is completely derelict,

08:12but we've been doing sort of kind of studies recently on how we could maybe sort of develop

08:19that. Of the properties at the moment, six have got tenants, so we're a community, we're

08:26a private landlord, but you know, community landlord. We've got two empty properties,

08:33one of which hopefully will become residential accommodation again, we've just got, I've just

08:38yesterday got feasibility study done on that. And then the other one that's empty, that along

08:44with the derelict property and some of the other outbuildings, we've just had a, been working with

08:51an architect and looking at the practicalities of what these different buildings or groups of

08:57buildings could actually do. And it's been a very much of a background study at the moment,

09:02so it's looking at SEPA planning permission, what the restrictions on it, what's the potential,

09:08and now we're just sort of looking, we've got all that information, it's looking at the

09:12the pound signs of how can we generate income from those as well. So it takes time to pull

09:19all that together, but we're well on the way with that now. So hopefully, probably June, July 10,

09:27we'll be prioritising and making a decision as to what we're going to pursue in the first instance.

09:34We're looking at the moment in that a number of the staff posts are funded through grants,

09:39but that's time limited. So we do have other existing income sources on the reserve in terms

09:46of obviously residential properties, we've got some land leases, way leads. We're lucky that

09:54we've just undertaken some felling, which has brought in income from, that's commercial

10:00six spruce. So we have got some money that we can invest in capital projects, which in turn we hope

10:07will then. Just kind of, I think that one of the big things, and one of the things we get asked all

10:17the time is like, but how are you going to make it work, like financially work? And I think that's

10:21a really big focus for all of us, for our board, for you know, for the staff, is that with everything

10:26we're doing, we're thinking about the long-term sustainability, and how is it, how will income

10:30be generated, and how will we make sure that this is here for the long haul? There's a lot of work.

10:36It's not easy, but it's exciting. It is, it's so exciting, it is. If you're interested,

10:42I'll probably be doing a story about meeting with them. You can follow Hayes Way on the Scotsman

10:47website, you can subscribe to the Scotsman, and all the stories and content that I'm producing

10:53will be under the section Hayes Way, and you can also follow me on my Instagram page, which is

10:59rural underscore cat with a K.

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