Hutters sought to live among trees in Fife forest

● Community of 13 huts to be built by spring 2019

Those seeking a simpler life will soon have the chance to secure a plot in the first hutting community to be built on Scotland’s national forest estate.

A 13-hut community at Carnock Wood, near Saline in Fife, has been approved by planners with people invited to register their interest from next week.

The huts will be built amid the birches, pines and sycamores of the forest with hopes the hutters will be on site by spring 2019. Ten plots will be offered to those living within 50 miles of Carnock Wood, two will go to those living in the surrounding community with another to be used as a classroom for a local school.

The development is viewed as major step forward in the campaign to revive a culture of recreational hutting in Scotland which dipped away following World War Two.

Donald Mcphillimy, of Reforesting Scotland, which will open the process of registration at its rally in Edinburgh on November 18, said: “It’s an exciting time.”

“There has been a 70-year gap in the hutting movement in Scotland so we are really working to get it to where it would have been.”

A ballot will ultimately decide who will get a plot in the national forest, which is managed on behalf of Scottish Ministers by Forest Enterprise.

Successful applicants will build their own hut, which usually costs anything between £200 and £5,000 depending on materials used, with a design code set out by planners.

In addition, the Carnock Wood hutters will enter a rental agreement with Forest Enterprise for their space in the wood, which is designed to be used at weekends and for holidays.

Each hut, which will have no running water or electricity, will be likely be serviced by its own compost toilet.

Mr Mcphillimy added: “With hutting you are really going back to basics.

“You are leaving a lot of clutter of day to day life behind in your house.

“You take only what you need to your hut.”

Reforesting Scotland has been working since 2011 to increase the number of huts in Scotland.

Since 2014, the Scottish Government’s planning policy has encouraged planning authorities to consider huts for recreational use.

Scotland’s most established hutting community can be found at Carbeth in Stirlingshire.