About Us
A WILD VALLEY AND A SCHOOL OF THE SPIRIT
There is a spectacular and delightfully hidden piece of countryside at the far end of a beautiful valley in Powys, Wales (UK). The Forest of Dreams was conceived in 2002, by a group of people inspired to return this unique piece of land to the wild and to protect it for all future generations. A registered charity was set up with the aim of buying an area of the land , and to allow it to naturally return to the wild. After eleven years of fundraising and hard work, the charity finally completed the purchase of the land. The fundraising focus of the Forest of Dreams will now be to raise funds towards the annual costs of managing the land for all future generations.
Our Vision ...
.... is to return these few hundred acres to the wild and preserve them as such for all future generations.
Today, only a small percentage of the UK's landscape comprises wood land and wild land (only 4% of Wales is semi-natural woodland according to NRW), whilst the majority is intensively farmed or used for commercial purposes. The Forest of Dreams is making a much needed gesture by purchasing land to return to the wild, without any commercial purpose, for the benefit of all future generations.
Wonderfully secluded, the land combines a rare mixture of diverse and rich habitats: wild wooded gorges, two rivers, sheltered meadows, heather and bilberry moor, spectacular rockface and scree
slopes, sylvan nooks, high waterfalls, rock-pools and streams and a small seasonal encampment tucked away among the trees; the summer home of Spirit Horse Foundation since 1990 and before that a regular camping ground for Forest School Camps and other educational groups. Visitors to the valley all attest to the idyllic nature of the place.
All agree that the land is perfectly suited as a magnificent wildlife and wild wood sanctuary left largely to itself, but also managed in a sensitive way. And to continue to allow groups such as Spirit Horse Foundation to use the land for retreats and workshops.
Experts within the field of conservation and ecology have stated that The Forest of Dreams is a very unusual project in that we are buying land TO LET IT GO WILD.
There is no longer any farming on the land. The livestock, which once grazed there have been relocated, and the land is now slowly returning to the original face of nature.
Please read the Return to The Wild section, for news on the progress so far, and for more information on the fauna and flora that inhabit the valley.
