The buy-in on our birthday!

We did it! The community now owns a large part of the land and assets at The Park Ecovillage – and this history was made in perfect timing, as we celebrated 62 years since our founders first arrived in Findhorn.

As we marked the birthday with our first community-led annual gathering, the Ecovillage Findhorn Community Benefit Society (EF CBS) was finalising the purchase agreement with the Findhorn Foundation Trust to acquire parts one and two of the community buy-in, including the Universal Hall.

As of 18 November, the community now owns:

Part 1: Guest Lodge, Youth Project Building, Bunkhouse, Village Green, the Field of Dreams green, Phoenix shop building, mobile-home land, long-let caravans, bungalows, and yurt.

Part 2: Universal Hall, Biomass boiler, Skylab (formerly Big Sky), laundry, and the associated land.

Congratulations to the EF CBS team for an incredible achievement after a tough journey of more than a year!  Over £400 000 was raised from investors through 5% community bonds, loans and gifts.

The change of ownership was marked with a blessing led by Katherine Collis in the Universal Hall Sanctuary, to release the Findhorn Foundation trustees and welcome the stewardship of the EF board of directors.

For more on this, or to support the next stage of the buy-in, please click here. 

On 17 November 1962, our founders Eileen and Peter Caddy, and Dorothy Maclean arrived at what was then a caravan park, soon followed by our fourth founder, Lena Lamont. That small handful of people dreamed of a new age, not knowing their vision would become a thriving community of thousands, reaching around the world. 

Read the legendary story here, or watch a brilliant slideshow of the growth of the community from a single caravan to a world-famous ecovillage, compiled by Cornelia Featherstone and the Celebrating One Incredible Family (COIF) team. 

With thanks to Mark Richards for images.