Roots to Resilience: Building on Success
Friday 30 May and Saturday 31 May 2025
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye
Community Land Scotland’s annual gathering is back—two days of ambitious conversations, big ideas, and practical solutions. As always, this is a space for community landowners and sector leaders to tackle challenges, celebrate successes, and push the movement forward. With thought-provoking discussions, hands-on workshops, and plenty of time to connect, Roots to Resilience is about turning ambition into action. See you at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.
The 2025 Annual Conference is sponsored by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Government and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Booking for Members and Supporters will open Monday 17 March. All other booking levels will open 1 April.
PLEASE NOTE: due to capacity caps, there will be a limit of two delegates per organisation. If you would like to request additional delegate spaces, please contact Meg and you will be added to a wait list.
The registration options are:
- Community Land Scotland Member delegate (£60)
- Student delegate (£60)
- Supporter delegate (£90)
- Individual delegate (£150)
** Supporter delegate registrations are available to current Individual and Organisational Supporters of Community Land Scotland. If you are not sure if you are eligible, please contact Jackie.
Conference Welcome Dinner:
Join us in the evening of Friday 30 May for the Conference Dinner. This will take place in the main dining hall at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. Following dinner, the bar across the street will be open.
Accommodation options:
Accommodation on Skye in late May can be incredibly hard to find and very expensive. We have approximately 50 rooms available at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, and this year we have also booked space at the Broadford Hostel.
Once you have booked your conference registration, you will receive an email confirmation. In that email, there is a link to book accommodation.
Conference Programme:
13:00 – 14:00 Opening Plenary
Welcome
Community Landowner spotlight
Claiming Our Future: Refiring our ambitions
Scotland’s community ownership movement has come a long way. Our panel will reflect on the movement’s ambitious beginnings, share successes, and dig into the big questions for the future. With so much experience in the room, this will be a lively and honest discussion. Panellists will explore what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what we should be aiming for in the years ahead.
14:15 – 16:15 Workshop sessions
16:30 – 17:30 Afternoon plenary
Community Landowner spotlight
Rooted in Community: Innovations in Engagement
Community landowners need to connect with their communities to make progress, build credibility, and plan for the future. In this session, we will share examples of how to engage with your community. Delegates will hear from two communities about their experiences, strategies, and lessons learned. After the presentations, there will be time for discussion and questions.
Perth Declaration: Moving Ahead
An update from the team at Community Land Scotland about our work, what we’ve learned from Members and how that is shaping our future. Linsay will provide a look at how the organisation itself is changing, and Josh will provide an update on how we are responding to the Perth Declaration, and where we are headed next. Short Q&A to follow.
17:30 – 18:00 Meeting of the Membership
9:30 – 10:30 Opening Plenary
Welcome
Making it Pay: Channelling new income streams
Community landowners support their communities in many ways, but to do that, they need a steady income. In this session, three groups will share how they set up businesses to fund their work. They will discuss their experiences, challenges, and key lessons. There will also be time for questions and discussion on ways to achieve financial sustainability.
Making the Most of Natural Capital: an introduction our new project
This session will introduce the Natural Capital Partnerships Project, which aims to support fair and inclusive partnerships between communities, landowners, and nature finance developers. Following a short presentation, there will be time for Q&A.
10:45 – 11:45 Financial Sustainability breakouts
Explore practical strategies to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of your community ownership project. These sessions will include workshops and discussions on diverse funding pathways, covering topics such as accessing carbon credits, writing successful grant applications, developing entrepreneurial skills, and maximizing community benefits
12:15 – 13:00 Closing SessionCommunity Landowner spotlight
Panel discussion: Looking Back, Moving Forward
As the conference comes to a close, this panel will look at the journey of community ownership in Scotland—where it started, what’s been achieved, and what comes next. The speakers will reflect on ideas raised in the past two days, drawing on discussions from talks, workshops, and community stories. Together, they’ll explore the big questions for the future and what we should be aiming for in the years ahead.
Conference Exhibitors:
The Community Landownership Academic Network (CLAN) aims to expand and communicate our knowledge of community landownership through encouraging and coordinating ethical, collaborative and mutually-beneficial research. It facilitates partnerships between researchers and community organisations and encourages an approach which places community benefit at its centre through the design, conduct and communication of research. CLAN’s new website (www.clan.scot) houses a library of all publications, a record of all live research projects and a directory of all researchers working in this area, freely accessible for public access. The network seeks feedback from landowning community organisations as to how it can best encourage and facilitate useful research in the future.
Grassroots to Global aim to help enable real systemic change, starting by creating democratic spaces for all kinds of people to learn, listen, use their imaginations, connect experiences and issues, and rebuild trust in ourselves and each other.
Following collaborations on Summer Gatherings: Deep Listening, and A Land Moot in 2024, Grassroots to Global are supporting Just Walk for land justice in Scotland; which will come from Skye to Glasgow in Autumn 2025.
Peatland ACTION is a national programme to restore peatlands across Scotland for the many benefits to both people and nature. Peatland ACTION funding comes through the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plan for net zero, with a commitment to invest £250million to support the restoration of 250,000 hectares of peatlands by 2030.
Peatland ACTION provides funding, support and advice to deliver on-the-ground peatland restoration delivered through a network of partner organisations led by NatureScot.
Peatland restoration is a key component in the suite of nature-based solutions to the twin crises of climate change and nature loss and a rapidly expanding area of work across Scotland. Over 51,000 hectares of previously damaged peatland have benefited directly from restoration activities by Peatland ACTION.
Bookings are now open for Exhibitor space at the conference.
Each Exhibitor registration includes:
- Exhibition space / table in the atrium at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
- One delegate space, which includes entrance to the conference and lunch on both days
- Listing in delegate packs and on Community Land Scotland website
Conference dinner on 30 May and accommodation can also be booked.