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Wildland's landholding spans three conglomerate estates: Wildland Cairngorm, anchored by the celebrated Glenfeshie Estate, alongside Gaick, Lynaberack, Killiehuntly, and Kinrara; Wildland West and Loch Ness, taking in the shores of Loch Ness and beyond; and Wildland North Coast, stretching across Sutherland's UNESCO Geopark coastline to the far north. Together, these 13 estates cover 220,000 acres, making the Povlsens Scotland's largest private landowners and the custodians of some of the country's most ecologically significant terrain.
The mission is quietly radical. Where most estate management across the Scottish Highlands has historically prioritised deer stalking and grouse shooting, Wildland shifts the focus entirely: from extraction to regeneration, from sport to science, from short-term returns to what Povlsen calls "timescales more likely to be enjoyed in our children's lifetime than by us in ours."
The Caledonian Forest once covered much of Highland Scotland. By the time Wildland began its work at Glenfeshie in 2006, barely 1% of the original forest remained. Centuries of overgrazing, commercial felling, and mismanaged deer populations had reduced one of Europe's most ancient woodland habitats to a shadow of itself.
Wildland's approach was, and remains, ecologically rigorous. Deer numbers across the estates have been dramatically culled, removing the single greatest pressure on natural regeneration. The results have been swift and measurable: at Glenfeshie alone, Wildland has more than doubled its portion of the Caledonian Pine Forest to over 1,600 hectares of entirely natural tree growth. More than six and a half million trees have been planted across the estates, but the greater story is in the wild self-seeding forests, pine, birch, juniper and rowan growing of their own accord, knitting the soil, slowing erosion, and building the structural complexity of a mature Highland woodland.
"We have invested deeply in our own satellite tagging to better understand the habits and reach of our iconic birds," Povlsen has said. Those birds are already returning: hen harrier, goshawk and golden eagle are sighted with increasing frequency. On the rivers, freshwater pearl mussels, indicators of pristine water quality, are making a quiet comeback. Wildcat, pine marten, red squirrel, capercaillie, ptarmigan and beavers are all part of the ecological picture, some recovering, some under active protection programmes. The horizon holds greater ambitions still: Povlsen has spoken carefully of a future in which lynx and wolf might return, provided ways can be found for such species to coexist with rural communities.
Beyond the forests, Wildland's North Coast estates include some of Scotland's most extensive areas of blanket bog: part of the Flow Country, the largest blanket peat bog in Europe and one of the world's most significant carbon stores. These vast, silent landscapes absorb and lock carbon at rates that put plantation forestry to shame, and Wildland actively supports the campaign to secure UNESCO World Heritage status for the Flow Country, recognising its global importance as a climate buffer and freshwater filter.
This is conservation as climate infrastructure. Not greenwashing, not offsetting, but the genuine, methodical restoration of functioning ecosystems that underpin the health of entire watersheds and regional water tables.
One of the most persistent misreadings of large-scale rewilding is that it displaces communities or locks people out of the land. Wildland's model is explicitly the opposite. From the heritage bakery in Tongue, revived in partnership with local businesses, to investment in the North Coast 500 tourism route, which has brought sustained economic activity north of Inverness, Wildland's vision has always included the people of the Highlands as central to its purpose.
A 2021 Rewilding Britain report found that rewilding increases local job numbers by 47% and volunteering opportunities sevenfold. Wildland employs a team of more than 40 conservationists, craftspeople and hospitality professionals across its estates, and its business portfolio extends into cabin manufacturer Kabn, alcohol-free spirits producer Incharvie Group, and active investment in rural enterprise. "Sustainable and thriving local communities," the organisation states, "lie at the heart of our vision."
Wildland's hospitality arm is not ancillary to its conservation work: it is part of the same argument. Each property exists to connect guests with the living landscape, to make the case that nature can, as the Povlsens put it, "pay her way." The aesthetic is consistent across all of it: Scandinavian restraint meeting Highland warmth, raw stone and timber, the smell of peat, nothing superfluous.
Killiehuntly Farmhouse, Cairngorms National Park. Standing since 1850 at the foot of the Cairngorm mountains, Killiehuntly Farmhouse is an eight-guest guesthouse anchored in the rhythms of the landscape. Seasonal three-course dinners, shared tables, a sauna yurt in the trees, cold plunges in the river: everything here is calibrated to slow a guest down. Surrounding self-catering cottages extend the estate's offer into the wider park.
Glenfeshie Lodge, Cairngorms. The centrepiece of Wildland's flagship estate, the Victorian-era Glenfeshie Lodge sleeps up to ten amid regenerating Caledonian pine forest where golden eagles have made their return. Wood-panelled and deeply settled in its landscape, the lodge is Wildland's most eloquent argument for what rewilding actually looks like from the inside.
Aldourie Castle, Loch Ness. The 300-year-old baronial Aldourie Castle, set within 500 acres of grounds, wildflower meadow and walled gardens on the shores of Loch Ness, is Wildland's grandest property. Restored by architect Ptolemy Dean, landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith, and interiors by Charlotte Freemantle and Will Fisher of antique emporium Jamb, the castle sleeps 24 across 12 en-suite bedrooms and is available as an exclusive hire only. Seven estate cottages extend the offer for larger parties.
Lundies House, Tongue, Sutherland. On the edge of Scotland's north coast, overlooking the Kyle of Tongue, Lundies House is Wildland's art hotel: an intimate, deeply designed boutique property where locally sourced food, exceptional interiors, and proximity to one of Europe's last great wilderness coastlines combine into something that resists easy categorisation. Understated without being sparse, Lundies is the Wildland sensibility at its most distilled.
Kinloch Lodge, Sutherland. A Scandinavian-inspired exclusive-hire lodge sleeping up to 12 in the wilds of Kinloch, set beside the river with private woodland surroundings. Complemented by self-catering cottages including Kyle Cottage and Strathmore Lodge for those seeking complete solitude.
Hope Lodge, opening May 2026. Wildland's most ambitious hospitality project to date, Hope Lodge is set to open on the North Coast in spring 2026 in anticipation of growing international interest in Scotland's rewilding story. It represents the next chapter in the organisation's vision of nature-immersive luxury.
Wildland is operating at a scale and with a patience that most conservation efforts cannot sustain. It posts significant annual losses, deliberately so: the 2025 accounts show a £33.6 million deficit that Povlsen describes as the cost of investment in long-term infrastructure, hospitality, and conservation programmes, with revenue growing steadily as the hospitality estate matures. It is a private, multigenerational commitment with no exit strategy, no short-term return, and no performative branding to anchor it.
"The regeneration of this wilderness," Povlsen has said, "will demand timescales more likely to be enjoyed in our children's lifetime than by us in ours, but we know that we can help create the conditions necessary to allow natural processes to gain a foothold."
That is the language not of a land investor or a green philanthropist, but of a custodian: someone who has chosen to hold something in trust for people not yet born, in a landscape still finding its way back to itself. Scotland's nature has known worse odds than these. With 220,000 acres, a two-century plan, and a family that has made the Highlands their life's work, the land is being given, at last, the space to remember.
Wildland operates across three conglomerate Highland estates: Wildland Cairngorm, Wildland West and Loch Ness, and Wildland North Coast. For stays, information, and conservation updates: wildland.scot
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Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.