Monocle, Wildland

Photography & Art Direction: Edvinas Bruzas
Monocle Partnerships Editor: Niall Flynn
Moncole Creative Solutions Project Director: Maud Vos
Commissioned by Matthew Beaman
Published in Monocle The Escapist 2024

“The Scottish highlands enthral and confound. One moment you’re enveloped by swooping forestry, the next you’re gazing out across jagged mountains. As the founders of Wildland Limited, an organisation dedicated to rehabilitating natural landscapes, Anne and Anders Holch Povlsen have a special relationship with this remote and beautiful environment. Since founding the passion project, the couple has taken on custodianship of three vast estates: Wildland Sutherland, Wildland Cairngorm and Wildland West & Ness. The journey began in 2006 with the purchase of Glenfeshie, a 45,000- acre Cairngorms estate. “It was the natural beauty and potential that first interested us,” says Anders, the owner of the fashion retailer Bestseller, who fell in love with Scotland as a child on family holidays from Denmark. Anne was less familiar with this part of the world, but just as enchanted upon first visit. “The beauty of Scottish nature is humbling,” she says. The project has steadily evolved. Wildland has planted more than six million trees by hand across its estates, while efforts to reduce deer numbers have begun to reverse the impact of overgrazing and create a balance. The conservation doesn’t end there. Efforts extend to restoring buildings and supporting communities and people. “Wildland is a business that plays a part in the local community,” says Anders. At the heart of this are the hospitality offerings: a castle at Loch Ness, as well as lodges, cottages and “wee hotels” on Wildland estates. It’s rare to meet founders who can speak as eloquently about carbon offsetting as they can interior design. It’s this multiplicity that best defines Wildland: a design-first organisation and conservation project with an ambitious 200-year vision for Scotland. “We hope our children and grandchildren will look back in many years and proudly say that we made a difference,” says Anne. “We are only custodians,” adds Anders. “That’s important. It’s not about owning the land but rather the protection and regeneration of it.”

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