SCOTTISH beer giant BrewDog may be on the hook to repay public funding for its “lost forest” project after the firm sold its Highlands estate.
Last month, The National first reported that the brewing company had sold the Kinrara estate, near Aviemore, to the Essex-based firm Oxygen Conservation.
BrewDog had promised to create “the biggest-ever” woodland in the Highlands to help the regeneration of Scotland’s ancient forest after acquiring the land for £8.8 million in 2020.
It was awarded public grants of £2.7m through the Forestry Grant Scheme, £1.1m of which had been paid out by late September 2025, according to files released to a Freedom of Information request.
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The grants normally come with a condition that the awarded project is overseen for 20 years, raising questions about the money handed to BrewDog, the Badenoch and Strathspey Herald reported.
Rhoda Grant, a Scottish Labour MSP and her party’s rural affairs spokesperson, said BrewDog had “received millions of pounds of government support yet now appears to wash its hands of responsibility for the project funded by public money”.
“The Forestry Grant Scheme is funded by taxpayers and designed to support genuine, sustainable woodland creation,” she added. “There needs to be accountability of companies who collect public money who then do not honour the terms of the support.”
The Scottish Government said that liability for the grant is in the process of being passed over to Oxygen Conservation.
Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “Forestry Grant Scheme grant recipients are responsible for the maintenance of their new woodland planting, and recipients of funding agree to maintain their new woodland creation projects for a period of 20 years.
“On the rare occasion a project fails to establish, grant recipients must repay the funds that were provided to create the new woodland.
“If a land sale transfers ownership of a new woodland creation project that was supported by the Forestry Grant Scheme, the liability for grant repayment rests with the original grant recipient, unless the obligations are formally transferred to a new owner.
“This new owner would enter into their own grant contract with Scottish Forestry to maintain the newly created woodland through to establishment.
“Scottish Forestry is in discussion with the new owners of the Lost Forest project at Kinrara Estate, and they are working through the process of transferring the grant obligations to the new owner.
“Once this transfer is agreed, the new owners will assume liability for any potential repayment of grants should the project fail to meet the Forestry Grant Scheme requirements.
“If no such transfer occurs, this responsibility will remain with the original grant recipient.”
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