About Insh Community Holdings

Insh Community Holdings is a small Scottish charity run by and for the people of Insh, a village between Kingussie and Kincraig on the edge of the Insh Marshes. We exist to care for the community's woodland and grazings (around 6.3 hectares of ground beside the village) and to keep them a shared, working, welcoming place for everyone who lives here.

The charity is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), registered on 17 February 2020, charity number SC049955. It serves the community of Insh (the households of postcodes PH21 1NT and PH21 1NU), though friends from further afield are very welcome as associate members.

Where we came from

The story of this land is far older than the charity. When Insh was established in 1828, crofting land was laid out beside the village, and the idea that this ground belongs with the community has never really gone away. In 1999 that idea took formal shape: the community took on a grazing licence for the land, adopted a constitution, and began the long, patient work of looking after it together.

Two decades later the community decided to buy the land outright. The Scottish Land Fund awarded a grant of £23,500 in 2020, and the purchase was completed in 2022, and the woodland and grazings passed, at last, into community ownership.

That is the short version. The full story of how it began at a Hogmanay party one starlit winter night, and of everything that followed, is told by Raymond, one of the five who started it, on the History page.

Trustees

The charity is run by a small board of trustees drawn from our members.

• Cattie Anderson

  Secretary

• Dan Walker

  Treasurer

• Colin McPherson

  Trustee

• Grant Shorten

  Trustee

• Victoria Marlowe

  Trustee

• Jenny Singh

  Trustee

The chairperson's post is vacant at present. We are always looking to recruit new volunteers and trustees, so if you are interested please speak to any of the trustees or get in touch.

Governance

• Constitution: the 2020 constitution sets out the charity's purposes and how it is run. It was adopted in February 2020, when Insh Community Holdings became a SCIO. Read the 2020 constitution (PDF, 418 KB).
• Charity register: Insh Community Holdings is regulated by OSCR, the Scottish Charity Regulator. See our entry on the charity register.
• Membership: membership costs £5 a year. Full membership is open to those who live or work in Insh; associate membership is open to anyone outside the community boundary. See Be Involved to join.