A grand day out at Glenlude

Our Head of Corporate Partnerships, Ailsa Colquhoun, reports on our first corporate day held at Glenlude in the Scottish Borders.

In mid August we welcomed some of our wonderful corporate supporters to Glenlude for a day exploring the site and seeing first-hand how their support helps us protect and restore wild places.

It was a chance to say thank you to those who have supported us over the years, while giving new businesses an opportunity to discover more about our work and how they could get involved.

And what better place to do that than Glenlude?

After a few cups of coffee by the wood stove, we headed out to explore the site, walking through its mosaic of woodland and showed the incredible range of plants growing in our polytunnel – including rock rose. Our guests also got a first look at the construction of our Gathering Shelter, one of Glenlude's most exciting new developments.

Creating a place for everyone

The Gathering Shelter is being created as a welcoming space for outdoor learning and connection. Facing towards Mecca, it has been designed to be accessible and welcoming to people from all backgrounds and abilities, especially for those who may be experiencing a wild place for the very first time.

This year, our Glenlude Appeal raised more than £50,000 towards the Shelter – an incredible milestone made possible by the generosity of our members and supporters. But the work at Glenlude goes far beyond restoring nature. It’s about restoring the connection between people and nature.  

Our guests heard about our work with local schools and our Junior Rangers programme giving young people a chance to experience the outdoors and learn practical skills, as well as our partnership with Phoenix Futures, who use Glenlude as part of their drug and alcohol recovery work.

As Duncan Davidson, founder of Rohallion, reflected: “What struck me the most was the engagement side of it, rather than the rewilding itself. They’re working with schools on education and junior ranger programmes, and with Phoenix Futures, who use the site in their drug and alcohol recovery work. Getting people outdoors and connected to a place seems to be as much the point as the nature.”

Partnerships that make a difference

We were also delighted to welcome Neil and Ben from Ooni, the Scottish business behind the world-famous pizza ovens. Ooni have generously donated a pizza oven to Glenlude, which will become part of the experience for visitors to the site.

Our plans include installing planters where visitors can pick herbs and vegetables to use with the pizza oven – creating a simple, memorable, and delicious way for people to connect with the land, its produce, and each other.

It's a great example of what a corporate partnership can look like. Businesses can support our work financially, but they can also bring their products, expertise, people, and ideas to help us create something special.

For Dave Stewart, founder of Fresh Air Leadership, the day was: “Fascinating. Refreshing. Inspiring.”

He particularly enjoyed: “hearing about their amazing work to enhance and protect the wild nature of this amazing place”.

A huge thank you from all of us at the John Muir Trust to everyone who joined us. We’re so grateful for your support and look forward to welcoming you back to Glenlude when the Gathering Shelter is complete and the pizza oven is set up. 

It was a beautiful day at Glenlude – both in weather and in spirit – and we're already looking forward to welcoming more businesses to the site.

Could your business join us?

We want to work with more businesses who share our ambition to protect and restore wild places. Whether through financial support, volunteering, donating products or expertise, sponsoring a project, or finding another creative way to work together, there are lots of ways for businesses to get involved with the John Muir Trust.

Our corporate partners are helping us protect wild places for nature and for people – and we want to welcome more businesses into that community.

• If you'd like to find out how your business could support the John Muir Trust, email our Head of Corporate Partnerships, Ailsa.

Photographs by Ailsa Colquhoun.