ABOUT KILCHOAN MELFORT TRUST

Our Purpose-

We are a conservation initiative that aims to restore biodiversity and set ecosystems onto a recovery path through nature led land management practices, promotion of natural processes, carbon sequestration and maximised ecosystem health.

Vision, Mission, Values

Our vision is to conserve the dynamic and diverse habitats of the estate. With a community-based bottom-up approach, we focus on the educational aspect and collaboration with a variety of partners and stakeholders to achieve our goals.

Our first mission was to renovate the infrastructure of the estate. However, our real aims are to become internationally recognised as a centre for spiritual creativity, rewilding and habitat enhancement, and as a place to foster all aspects of education.

We seek to embody the values of sustainability and community through our conservation projects; terrestrial and marine restoration, monitoring the impacts of our actions, carbon sequestration and maximisation of ecosystem health.

OUR HISTORY

In the Middle Ages, Kilchoan was the home of the Macewans, whose family were bards of Argyll. Then the Maclachlan family lived at Kilchoan for many years. In the early nineteenth century the Campbell of Melfort clan made the estate their home. Parts of the Melfort Estate were sold off but Kilchoan was retained due to its’ irresistable charm. In 1906 it was sold to a Glasgow businessman who used it as a holiday home. He sold it in 1926 to the Henderson family. Miss Henderson gifted the estate to her nephew, Harry Keate and it remained in the Keate family until its sale in 2015 to chilean businessman, Nicolas Ibanez Scott.