BrewDog sold its Highland estate for £8.85 million, only slightly more than the £8.5 million it paid in 2020, after abandoning plans to plant Scotland's 'biggest ever forest'. The sale to Oxygen Conservation in October 2024 fell short of the estate's inflation-adjusted value of about £11.3 million, excluding legal and consultancy costs.
The 'Lost Forest' project at Kinrara in the Cairngorms national park was intended to capture tens of millions of tonnes of CO2 through tree planting, peatland restoration and ecotourism. However, after BrewDog posted losses of £37 million and co-founder James Watt was replaced as CEO, the company sold the estate.
Land registration records reveal Oxygen Conservation paid £2,351 per hectare for Kinrara, significantly less than the £4,687 per hectare it paid for the nearby Dorback estate in December 2024. The deal also included valuable carbon credits worth at least £4.8 million, which BrewDog handed over without realising the profits.
The sale included 130,000 woodland 'pending issuance units' (PIUs) worth at least £3.5 million and 46,500 peatland PIUs worth about £1.2 million. Oxygen Conservation expects these to rise in value once converted into full carbon credits, which it sold for £125 each last year.
Land reform experts suggest the price may indicate a stalling market for Highland estates focused on carbon credits. Asset manager Aberdeen has also been forced to cut the price for Far Ralia, a nearby estate bought for £7.5 million in 2021, after its client faced rising costs and a property price collapse.
