Lochcarron Community Development Company, Strathcarron, Wester Ross, Scotland, UK

hutton_1©Vicky Stonebridge

CS team:
The James Hutton Institute

The CS in a nutshell:
The Lochcarron Community Development Company (LCDC) is a vibrant charity organisation which was formed in 2009 in order to revitalise the community to ensure its long term economic, social, cultural and environmental sustainability. LCDC aims to:
• Manage community land and associated assets for the benefit of the community and the public in general
• Advance the education of the community about environment, culture and history
• Advance the arts, heritage, culture and science
LCDC is a member of: Development Trust Scotland (DTAS), Community Woodland Association, and Community Land Scotland.

More information is available here.
Facebook page

About the area:
The “community” encompasses the settlements of Lochcarron, Strathcarron and Kishorn in Wester Ross, an area of about 320 km2.. The recent community ballot (2011) revealed that the level of adult population is 755, with 41% of the population being over 60 years. Like a number of villages in the Highlands, there is a lack of local employment opportunities which drive the young generation to seek out for jobs in the nearest urban centre such as Inverness (104 km away) or Aberdeen (274 km away). The village benefits from a health centre for day care but patients need to be driven to Inverness for heavier health care.  Lochcarron can be considered marginal because of its remotness, its mountainous character, its extensivel land use which is all designated as less favoured area and its extremely low density of population.

More information on the area Tourism website

huttonLocation of the study site. © Google Earth Pro & mapbox.com.

News and events:
EVENTSMarch 5th – Focus group with local stakeholders