The guide dog puppy, Cosmos, named by The Enchanted Forest Community Trust, has now successfully completed their puppy socialisation training with Guide Dogs just in time to join in the world-wide celebrations for International Guide Dog Day on Wednesday 27th April.

Cosmos, a female golden retriever, was born on 21 January 2020, alongside her four other canine siblings named Flossie, Wendy, Harley and Hazel. Placed with a puppy raiser in Perthshire during the pandemic, she learned the socialisation skills she’d need to train as a future guide dog, before leaving her puppy raiser to begin early training at Forfar.

Guide Dogs received a donation of £5,000 from funds raised by The Enchanted Forest’s 2019 show, Cosmos, and the pup was formally named after that year’s event. She is the first puppy in the history of Guide Dogs to be called Cosmos.

Every hour of every day, someone in the UK goes blind. When someone loses their sight, Guide Dogs is there to make sure they don’t lose their freedom as well and their guide dog training programme is one of the best in the world. The organisation was founded in 1931 by two amazing British pioneers, Muriel Crooke and Rosamund Bond. Guide Dogs grew from the humble beginnings of training the first four British guide dogs, to become the world’s largest breeder and trainer of working dogs, transforming 36,000 lives along the way.

International Guide Dog Day started in 1992 and is now held annually on the final Wednesday in April. It aims to raise awareness of the need for guide dogs, to honour the work of these faithful companions in changing people’s lives, and to encourage the public to support Guide Dog training charities.

Lesley Williamson, Chair of The Enchanted Forest Community Trust, said:

“We’re absolutely thrilled that Cosmos has moved into early training. Last year I had the pleasure of a very well-behaved walk with her at Faskally Wood, home of The Enchanted Forest, before she went off to the “big school”. She has a lovely character, and we hope her training continues to go well so that she can make a difference to someone living with sight loss. It’s been extraordinary to support a puppy through puppy raising, and we’ve very much enjoyed the updates we’ve had from the charity throughout the process. It’s truly humbling to know that Cosmos will make such a difference.”

Kyla McVicar, Business Development Manager at Guide Dogs Scotland, commented:

“We are extremely grateful to the Enchanted Forest Community Trust for their generous support. Every puppy named through Name a Puppy helps us reach the needs of more people living with sight loss in our community. We can’t thank the Enchanted Forest Community Trust enough for their kind support and are delighted that they have enjoyed following puppy Cosmos’ journey with us.”

The Enchanted Forest Community Trust has operated since 2010 as a charity, creating economic wealth and redistributing event surpluses to local community groups and charities to directly benefit the community. Over the last three years the Trust has donated around £129,000 to local community groups and projects, including Guide Dogs.

The Tayside Mountain Rescue team has further strengthened its rapid response service this winter after receiving a generous donation of £10,000 from The Enchanted Forest Community Trust last year.

A custom-built Ford Ranger has since been purchased by the charity just in time for the winter months thanks to the significant cash boost. The new all-terrain emergency vehicle, which replaces a nine-year-old Land Rover, will be stationed at the Aberfeldy base and used by the team for emergency call outs.

A portion of the money has also be put towards a major Tayside Mountain Rescue project which seeks to extend and develop a training base in Aberfeldy. With around 68% of all annual call outs across Perth and Kinross coming from North Perthshire alone, the idea is to create a training hub for additional emergency responder volunteers, specifically from this area.

Tayside Mountain Rescue is a group of around 50 volunteers with a plethora of specialist outdoor skills including remote medical expertise, technical rigging, swift water rescue and search management.
The team, which is the fourth busiest out of the 28 located across Scotland, operates in all weather, all terrain and at all hours.

Kevin Linklater, President of Tayside Mountain Rescue, said: “This state of the art vehicle is great news for our team and the local residents. It’s been kitted out to provide everything we need to help people who get into difficulty while they’re out enjoying the Tayside countryside. It’s a vast improvement on the old vehicle – more economical to run, greener and with the very latest technology.”

Offering space onboard for five of the volunteers, the Ford Ranger comes fully equipped with blankets, first aid kits, a defibrillator, a fridge with refreshments, lighting for night-time, power packs for charging phones and various ropes and related climbing equipment to aid rescues.

Kevin continued: “Developing an outpost for training in Aberfeldy is one of our key objectives as it will offer training opportunities to other emergency responder volunteers and essentially build a bigger and stronger team. Donations like the one from The Enchanted Forest Community Trust and other support from our community take us a step closer to our goals. As a charity which relies 100% on volunteers, funding is imperative to allow us to maintain our life saving service – and protect its future for years to come.”

The Enchanted Forest Community Trust made its donation after the rescue team provided safety support to the show’s technicians as they beamed a stunning laser light into the night sky above Pitlochry over the first weekend in October last year – allowing hundreds of residents to watch from the safety of their own gardens.

Lesley Williamson, Chair of The Enchanted Forest, added: “We’re very proud to hear that our donation has assisted the rescue team to purchase a much-needed new vehicle, as well as edge a little closer to their ambition of opening a training base in Aberfeldy. With so many of their fundraising events cancelled due to Covid 19 over the last 18 months, it’s certainly been a challenging time. It is even more important that the community gets behind them so they can continue to do their fantastic work.”

For more information about the latest work of the Tayside Mountain Rescue visit www.taysidemrt.org

The Enchanted Forest, Scotland’s favourite sound and light show, has underscored its trailblazing credentials by being this first outdoor illumination event in the UK to plant a tree as part of the national Queen’s Green Canopy initiative, set up to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

The tree has been gifted to the event by Forestry & Land Scotland, and will be planted at Faskally Wood in Pitlochry, where the event is held annually.

Alex Cairncross, Deputy Lieutenant of Perth and Kinross met with Lesley Williamson, Chair of The Enchanted Forest Community Trust at Faskally Wood on Friday 1^st October marking the official launch of the Queen’s Green Canopy at the start of tree planting season which will see people from across the United Kingdom invited to “Plant a Tree for the Jubilee”.

The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) is a unique tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. With a focus on planting sustainably, the QGC will encourage planting of trees to create a legacy, in honour of The Queen’s leadership of the Nation, that will benefit future generations. The Queen’s Green Canopy will also dedicate a network of 70 Ancient Woodlands across the United Kingdom and identify 70 Ancient Trees to celebrate Her Majesty’s 70 years of service.

Faskally Wood, where The Enchanted Forest is held, was created in the 19^th century by Archibald Butter whose historical home on the Faskally estate is now owned and managed by the National Trust for Scotland.  The forested lands were acquired by Forestry Commission (now Forestry and Land Scotland) and used as a training school for young foresters owing, in part, to its extensive range of tree species planted across the 55-hectare woodland. It now boasts over 23 species including Douglas fir, wild cherry and oak, with some of the trees over 100 years old. The tree that will be planted as part of the Queens’ Green Canopy will be a Red Oak, noted for its flaming red Autumn colours.

Lesley Williamson, Chair of The Enchanted Forest Community Trust commented:

“We are absolutely delighted to be marking this auspicious occasion for Her Majesty with the planting of a beautiful red oak tree in Faskally Wood, home of The Enchanted Forest. This is a tree that will be enjoyed for generations to come and, we hope, many thousands of visitors who attend the event every year.”

Alex Cairncross, Deputy Lieutenant of Perth and Kinross commented:

“The Enchanted Forest event is one of Scotland’s favourite Autumn events and we are so pleased that they are leading the way on this magnificent campaign to create a lasting legacy for Her Majesty, The Queen, to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee Year. Faskally Wood is stunning at all times of the year, but especially in Autumn and uniquely at night, thanks to The Enchanted Forest.”

The much-loved event normally attracts over 80,000 visitors a year to Highland Perthshire and thousands of tickets for the 2022 event were released on Friday morning.

For more information please visit: www.enchantedforest.org.uk and www.queensgreencanopy.org

It is with heavy hearts and great sadness that we have reached a decision to cancel The Enchanted Forest in 2021.

Like a great many events we had sincerely hoped that we’d be able to operate this year. We have planned with that in our hearts, while waiting patiently on the necessary guidance and clarity from Government that would enable us to proceed safely. That clarity and guidance has, sadly, not been forthcoming in sufficient time for us and, regrettably, the financial risk of proceeding with our plans and potentially having to cancel at a later date without insurance to underpin potential losses is too considerable for a small charitable event operator to bear.

This year’s event was intended to mark our 20th anniversary and, while we may not be able to come together in the forest as planned, we will be looking to mark the occasion in a way that celebrates the incredible magic and success of 20 years of The Enchanted Forest.

Our beautiful home of Faskally Wood has stood proud and tall throughout this pandemic, and we hope our customers have kept safe and well. We are confident that we will be able to return one day, and we look forward to when that will happen.

Our provisional dates for the event in 2022 are Thursday 29 September – Sunday 30 October.

Tickets purchased for the 2021 event will be automatically rolled over into 2022. In due course we’ll be reaching out to everyone who has purchased tickets to confirm their new dates. Everyone who has purchased tickets for this year’s show will be given advance notice of their new dates prior to tickets going on public sale later this year. In the meantime, if anyone wishes to arrange a refund, our ticket agent will be in contact with details of how these can be processed online, or you can contact them directly at tickets@enchantedforest.org.uk

If you have any questions, our customer services team are here and happy to help. Please drop us an email at info@enchantedforest.org.uk

The Enchanted Forest Community Trust, the organisers behind Scotland’s pioneering sound and light show, The Enchanted Forest, has strengthened its senior management team with the appointment of a new Executive Director and, for the first time ever, a female Chair.

Lesley Williamson takes up the reigns this month as the Trust’s very first female chairperson. With decades of experience within the hospitality, tourism and events industries, including senior positions such as the Non-Executive Director of Northumberland Tourism, Chair of Made in Northumberland, and Vice-Chair of the North East Hoteliers Association, Lesley brings a wealth of expertise to the role.

Lesley is joined by Nela Popovic as Executive Director. Nela is a senior events professional with over twenty years’ experience, including working in large sporting and mass participation events, museums, and galleries. Nela joins the Trust from her position of Managing Director at Make It Right Projects, a mass participation and charity consultancy specialising in all aspects of event and project management, which has provided services for high profile events such as the 2012 London Olympics and 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

The moves are expected to strengthen the charity’s leadership team to develop The Enchanted Forest’s growth strategy, bringing additional expertise and innovation to the much-loved event, which already draws in over 80,000 visitors to Highland Perthshire annually. While the 2020 Enchanted Forest event had to be cancelled due to covid-19 restrictions, the Trust is busy planning this year’s milestone 20th anniversary event, subject to the easing of restrictions and it being considered safe to operate.

Looking to the future, the Trust will also be bolstering its board of trustees during 2021 with the launch of a trustee recruitment campaign this Spring.

Lesley Williamson, Chair of The Enchanted Forest Community Trust said:

“The Enchanted Forest is such an iconic Scottish autumn event, and I am excited about taking up the role of Chair as we look to the future and strive to make it a bigger and better event year on year. Of course, it has been a challenging time for the events industry, and we dearly hope the 20th anniversary event will run as planned. We want it to be a real celebration of how much the event has achieved in the last twenty years and the joy it has bought to the thousands of visitors that have attended every year.
“I am delighted to be welcoming Nela to the team. She brings decades of experience and expertise from working at a senior level in the events industry and we’re both excited about the future of The Enchanted Forest as we look to the next decade of growth.”

Nela Popovic commented:

“It’s a privilege to be working for such a highly esteemed event, and I look forward to working with Lesley and the board of trustees to deliver an event which continues to exceed visitor expectations year on year.”

For more information, please contact Emma Davies on 01738 700134 or 07963 817302 or email: e.davies@volpa.co.uk.

We are looking forward to The Enchanted Forest returning to Highland Perthshire in October 2021.

To mark our return, on what would have been our show opening weekend (Friday 2^nd – Sunday 4^th October), we will be projecting a laser show into the skies around Pitlochry every night. This is our way of saying thank you to YOU. You have supported us over the last nineteen years and we wanted to let you know we are still with you during these challenging times.

The Enchanted Forest is operated by a charitable trust and this year, despite the challenges presented by COVID, we were still able to continue to support 29 local projects and organisations with cash donations amounting to over £68,000. This was the seventh year in a row that The Enchanted Forest Community Trust has been able to give back to our community and we hope to continue our good work in 2021.

These are testing times for us all. The Enchanted Forest has always been a community led event, managed by the community, for the community. We believe that there is true magic in the power of communities working together.

Although it cannot take place this year due to COVID restrictions, The Enchanted Forest normally welcomes over 80,000 visitors to Pitlochry and Highland Perthshire every year, providing a very real boost to local businesses. This year we know the event will be missed by many in what has been an extremely difficult year for all of us.

Like everyone, we want to look to the future with positivity and determination, therefore tickets for our 20^th Anniversary event will be on sale to the public from Monday 5^th October 2020 and we are optimistic that our confidence in the future of the event will be shared by our visitors.

Please stay safe, look after each other and we’ll see you next year.

The Enchanted Forest Team

For ticket information please visit: www.enchantedforest.org.uk