The Team

Sam Thornely

Sam is the Trust’s Chairman. He moved to Dumfries and Galloway in 1995 and was on the committee which helped start up South West Community Woodlands in 1996. The Taliesin community woodland was planted in 1997 and was awarded a Millenium Forest for Scotland grant in 1999 which enabled Sam to be a tree surgeon for 10 years. He also worked at The Galgael Trust in Govan from 2006-2007.

In 2009, Sam became a secondary school teacher and has been working in Inclusion since 2011. He has been chairman of the Glencairn Land and Woods Trust since 2018 and would like to further the aims of the group in developing community access to land and woodland.

Alyne Jones

Alyne Jones is the Trust’s secretary. Alyne lives and works as a writer and cultural historian in Moniaive and has a teaching diploma in textiles from Queen’s College, Glasgow and an MA Hons in Scottish Ethnology from Edinburgh University. She was instrumental in laying the foundations of South West Community Woodlands Trust and Cairnhead Community Forest Trust.

She is also the Director of Vanishing Scotland, a network organization which promotes the understanding of Scottish Cultural Traditions.  It is also home to a rich and unique ethnological archive including visual and audio records of the Land and the people of Galloway and Scotland. Making radio programmes for the BBC, publishing and collecting has ensured a legacy which is an invaluable source for Future generations. 

Roddy Fairley

Roddy is the Trust’s treasurer. He is an environmentalist and graduated in ecology from the University of Edinburgh. His studies of the below ground ecosystem led to a PhD from Aberdeen University.

Following early work for the Nature Conservancy Council on various aspects of nature reserve management, survey and monitoring, Roddy went on to become Director / Chair of Reforesting Scotland, Director of Paths for All and director of the Central Scotland Forest Trust.  He worked for Nature.Scot for 30 years, covering national and regional roles and retired in 2022.

Roddy has long lived in Moniaive and has known it since childhood. He sings in choirs, cooks for the family, writes poetry, keeps bees and walks the hills.

Matthew Cook

Matthew lives near Moniaive with his family, cats, chickens and bees.  He currently works in peatland restoration across the UK.  Previously Matthew worked in the renewable energy sector, installing meteorological masts for the wind power industry.  Matthew’s interests include music, writing, food and walking home from the pub.  He is chair of Moniaive Folk Festival Committee and serves on Glencairn Community Council.

John Ferguson

John Ferguson has lived in Glencairn for 7 years. He is interested in how all members of a community can work together for their collective betterment. He is particularly interested in how this relates to the environment in which we live in terms of a mutually beneficial relationship between humans and the land.