Welcome to the wreckage of the Carron Valley Development Group

You may already have heard our volunteer group is in the process of winding up and that our bold plans for developing Carron Valley Forest as a recreational resource for cyclists, walkers and horse riders will never come to pass.

Sadly, it seems, the tourism, business, health and social benefits this project would have delivered for the local communities and surrounding areas will not happen either.

We lay the blame for the failure of this project firmly at the door of one partner - Forestry Commission Scotland.

What you might not have heard before is exactly why this project failed. It was common knowledge the project was dogged by severe problems, but we were so busy trying to work with Forestry Commission Scotland that it was very difficult to let people know exactly what was going on behind the scenes.

We've heard and read all sorts of rumours and innuendo and, to be frank, plain lies about the project, so we thought it'd be useful if we put everything out in the open for you now to make up your own minds.

We sincerely hope that the cynical behaviour evidenced in these pages will not be repeated when it comes to the undertaking Forestry Commission Scotland gave to maintain the trails.

• Read a timeline of how the project came about and why it ultimately failed.
• View the image library.
• Read why CVDG resigned from the Carron Valley Partnership.

On a more positive note, the potential of Carron Valley Forest has never gone away. Whilst we didn’t achieve the Carron Valley Partnership’s ambition of a recreational centre for Central Scotland, CVDG delivered £125,000 of mountain bike trails which are free to use.

Along the way many individuals and organisations provided invaluable help and support to CVDG over the years. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank them here: