Christopher Briggs

Year 2 MArch

Coille an Àm

The Scottish Woodland Archive
Glen Affric, Highlands, Scotland

Coille an Àm (Forest of Time) envisions an Anthropogenic Forest in Glen Affric as a prototype for ecological recovery and climate adaptation. The Great Glen’s scarred slopes, stalled in a sub-climax state by centuries of deforestation, overgrazing and hunting, become a laboratory where intentional design stimulates natural forest succession. Material testing, climate modelling and biodiversity surveys underpin a Succession-Based Forest Adaptation Strategy that moves beyond Sitka spruce monocultures toward resilient, multi-layered native woodlands.

The Scottish Woodland Archive, a visitor centre and international research hub, stores seeds, leaves, soil and dendrochronological records while exhibiting silvicultural histories. Threaded through the new national park, thirteen Forest Bothies, each dedicated to a keystone species, offer shelter for forest bathing, planting and monitoring. Tree nurseries, outdoor classrooms and hiking trails weave public engagement into regeneration, reframing rewilding as an active partnership with time, climate and place.

Coille an Àm reframes rewilding not as a nostalgic return to the past but as an active collaboration with time, place, and ecology, laying the groundwork for a thriving, adaptive forest to be inherited by future generations.