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# Wild Ambition
- URL: https://tombrewer.co.uk/wild-ambition/
- Published: 2025-10-31T18:23:05.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-21T09:32:00.000Z
- Author: Tom Brewer
- Tags: Newsletter, #Migrated-1789982889005, #Import 2026-09-21 09:29

After yesterday’s battering on Ben Macdui, today was to be a quieter day. We set off for Glen Feshie. If you’ve ever seen The Monarch of the Glen, that famous Victorian painting of a stag standing noble against a Highland backdrop, you’ve seen the fantasy version of this place. The real Highlands were never that tidy. For more than a century, much of this land was stripped bare to make room for the very animal that painting glorified. The deer stayed; the trees didn’t.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/9c799dc2-2fb5-4385-8f7e-94399d09e2fd_2048x1152-jpeg-1.jpg)

We started at Achlean and picked up the route to Upper Glen Feshie, where the path immediately throws a ford in your way, in full spate after a wet and wild few days. Shoes off, trousers rolled up, we waded through the icy mountain water that was at once both numbing and achingly uncomfortable. The stream was in full spate from snowmelt higher up, and the only thing worse than crossing it was knowing we had do do it again on the way back.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/3621aac1-4341-4239-b895-5d2cfd223519_2048x1365-jpeg.jpg)

Glen Feshie is now a kind of rewilding laboratory, owned by Anders Holch Povlsen, a Danish billionaire better known for running the ASOS clothing empire. Since buying the estate in 2006, Povlsen and his team have transformed it from a depleted sporting ground into one of Britain’s most ambitious conservation projects. Deer numbers have been dramatically reduced, allowing Scots pine, birch, rowan and juniper to regenerate naturally. Erosion has slowed, rivers are meandering again, and wildlife is creeping back, including golden eagles, pine martens, and, apparently, red squirrels.

We didn’t see any of them. Not one. The grand total of our wildlife encounters today was a single white-throated dipper, performing a bob-and-dive routine in the burn.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/6878e9dc-5411-4d4c-9e0b-6ad8e964b913_1365x2048-jpeg.jpg)

The conservation efforts at Glen Feshie raise as many questions as answers. Rewilding sounds simple, let nature take charge, but in a landscape so shaped by people, sheep, and sporting estates, what does “wild” even mean? Povlsen’s vast holdings now total more than 230,000 acres across Scotland, making him the country’s largest private landowner. For some, he’s a hero, reversing centuries of ecological damage. For others, he represents yet another wealthy landlord deciding what Scotland should look like.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/48b88c6f-6873-4c36-9df0-c6c5da14b47e_2048x1152-jpeg.jpg)

Standing knee-deep in a freezing ford, the arguments feel less abstract. You can literally see the land coming back to life: seedlings pushing through heather, young trees anchoring the slopes, rivers reclaiming their curves. It’s messy, hopeful work. We followed the path deeper into the glen, the weather constantly reminding us we should be turning around and heading for the car now.

Povlsen and his team have set out a 200-year vision for restoring this landscape, a commitment so long-term it almost defies modern comprehension. It’s an attempt to think in the timescale of trees and rivers rather than election cycles and financial quarters. It’s grand and generous but not without controversy. I believe you can admire the ambition and still question who gets to decide what *wild* looks like.

Tomorrow it is time to head home, though the mountains will keep calling. They always do.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/3339dde9-a057-4d19-9063-59a42483f6fc_2048x1152-jpeg.jpg)