You did it! You have secured Skiddaw Forest - an extraordinary opportunity for nature

Donate to Skiddaw Forest

An absolutely massive thank you to everyone who donated to secure the land at Skiddaw Forest. This appeal reached its target in October 2024 but it’s not too late to donate to our restoration efforts.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust has the chance to create a huge new reserve at Skiddaw Forest, which will be the highest in England – but this can only be achieved with your help.

We’ve managed to raise 80% of the purchase price but we still need to raise £1.25 million.

The purchase of Skiddaw Forest (including Skiddaw summit) presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put nature into recovery in our uplands. With your support, this world-renowned 3,000-acre wilderness can be protected for nature, forever.

This is the largest fundraising ask we have ever made. Your contribution is vital to make this purchase possible.

We only have a limited time to raise the remaining funds or we risk losing out.

Please help if you can.

Frequently Asked Questions

Cumbria Wildlife Trust is hoping to secure this impressive piece of wilderness, which includes Skiddaw summit, for nature.

It is nationally recognised as an important site for its geology and ecology and is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation. Skiddaw Forest, also known as Back o' Skidda', will be the highest nature reserve in England. You have an opportunity to help ensure this area, which is currently nature depleted, is returned to a mosaic of habitats on a truly landscape scale.

Are you able to contribute to this vitally important appeal to bring about nature’s recovery?

Never before has purchasing a piece of land this large and significant been a possibility. It is only because of the incredible support of you, our members and supporters, that we find ourselves in a position to dream this big.

Our vision for what Skiddaw Forest could become:

An area of true wilderness where nature thrives and people can become lost in the natural world, fully immersed in all the wonder it has to offer.
A place where natural processes shape the landscape and human intervention is minimal.
Fell sides cloaked in scrub, petering out to dwarf scrub and willows as altitude limits growth. Further down, woodland and scattered native trees, draped with mosses and lichens, provide habitat for a multitude of species. Luxurious sphagnum mosses not only soak up water and help prevent flooding, but provide a carpet of protection for the deep peat below, which, now afforded the right conditions, locks away millions of tonnes of carbon.
Woolly cattle roaming, birds abound. Hen harrier and merlin hunt low over the vegetation looking for small birds and voles, while the mournful whistle of golden plover intermingles with the bubbling cries of curlew. Native flora and fauna galore!
Eagles soaring in search of prey are a regular sight, while far below, in amongst the tangle of stunted oaks festooned with mosses, lichens and ferns
Mountain streams tumbling down wooded cloughs into the natural river channels of the Caldew and Dash Beck. Both abound with migratory fish seeking out gravel beds in which to spawn.
The breathtaking amount of wildlife, and the positive and far-reaching impact this is having, sees neighbouring landowners and farmers seeking to replicate the techniques employed to restore this landscape back to its former glory.

Be a part of something groundbreaking.

Please donate - you are vital to sharing our dream and making it a reality. Your support will help secure the funds necessary to make Skiddaw Forest Cumbria Wildlife Trust's 43rd nature reserve - and what a reserve it would be!

By contributing to this appeal, you will see a jump from 9,000 to 12,000 acres of protected space in Cumbria. That’s a 33% increase in the land we manage for nature!

The story so far...

Thanks to generous offers of funding from Aviva, supporters and charitable funders, we have secured gifts to cover 80% of the purchase price. In order that we don’t miss out on this opportunity, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation have very kindly stepped in to temporarily bridge this gap in funding, giving us time to raise the remaining balance.

We now need to raise £1.25 million to fully secure this purchase. Esmée Fairbairn will own 20% of the land until we can raise this shortfall, and they have given us a limited amount of time to achieve this.

Please give what you can - every single donation, big or small, will help get us a step closer to making this happen, and is a vote of confidence for nature's recovery.

Keep checking back on this page - it will be updated with any additional donations received offline, be they from individuals or grant giving bodies. Your involvement in this appeal is critical. Please share this page far and wide if you can, and if you are in a position to make a monetary contribution, please click on any of the donate buttons on this page.

Skiddaw Forest is the largest single piece of land to come on the market in the Lake District National Park for many years. It is both strategically important and nationally significant.
We follow the principles of the Lawton Review - to take a whole-landscape approach where wildlife habitats are bigger, better managed and more joined-up.
The opportunity to restore land and natural processes at this scale is rare.

Steve Trotter, Chief Executive
Cumbria Wildlife Trust

Key actions and outcomes we hope to accomplish in our bid to buy this land:

Creation of a 620-acre Atlantic rainforest

As part of a 100-year vision for the site, planting will be with sessile oak, birch, rowan, holly, alder, willow and hazel in a manner that is sympathetic to the aesthetics of the landscape. This will allow a rich tapestry of life to grow on and around these trees and eventually ferns, mosses, liverworts and lichens will seem to cover every surface, from the ground to boulders, crags, and even the trunks and branches themselves.

This work will be registered with the Woodland Code for monitoring, with work and evaluation undertaken with a dedicated site officer.

Restoration of 992 acres of existing (but damaged) peatland

This will ensure that the area is an effective, long-term carbon store, and the rejuvenation of the sphagnum mosses on areas of the site will promote the growth of new peat. Together with a programme of land restoration, this will lead to healthy and balanced habitats promoting increased biodiversity and vitality in the species that depend on the uplands to survive. This work will be registered with the Peatland Code or other nature finance scheme for monitoring and we have a specialist peatland team that will undertake this work.

The creation of a new, large nature reserve (our 43rd)

This is part of a strategic plan to put nature firmly in recovery by making more space for it and connecting habitats at a landscape scale.

Fully securing the purchase of Skiddaw Forest and realising our vision for what it could become will only be made possible with your support.

Any contribution, large or small, is gratefully received – together, we can raise enough to secure this incredible opportunity.

Purchasing this 3,000 acres of wilderness will have a tremendous impact on our capacity to reverse nature's decline.

The purchase of Skiddaw Forest presents an unparalleled opportunity for nature and Cumbrian wildlife, and with so many species in decline, buying and protecting more land is more crucial than ever.

This is the largest fundraising ask we have ever made. Your donation - regardless of size - is crucial to ensuring that the purchase of this iconic piece of land is realised.

If you're unable to help with this appeal at this time, please know that your support as a member, volunteer or supporter is already hugely appreciated and we know you're doing all you can.

Thank you

N.B. If we are lucky enough to raise more money than is needed for the purchase, any surplus will be used for the restoration work. If, for some reason, we are unable to complete the purchase, we promise to contact all our supporters to offer a refund.