It was perfect timing when Michael, a former forester, got in touch with us in winter 2024 about planting a hazelnut orchard just as our first enterprise budget on the very topic was getting finished. Fast forward to spring 2026, the former sheep grazing pasture he had acquired has now been planted with the first trees of the hazelnut orchard. While many years still lie ahead until the orchard is fully planted and producing, already the journey has provided many valuable lessons which will no doubt be informative for others embarking on similar orchard and agroforestry projects.

Land Overview

Michael’s site, which he calls A’ Chaltainn (Scots Gaelic for hazel wood/forest), is located in South Ayshire, Scotland, near the village of Barr. It is roughly 17 hectares in size, steeply sloping and split between 9 hectares of mixed native woodland and 8.5 hectares of permanent pasture. The land’s gradient and limited accessibility make it particularly challenging to grow crops here, hence why this land is normally only considered good for grazing. However, thanks to generations of farmers around the world growing nuts in mountainous terrain, machinery and equipment adapted for such conditions is available, making this enterprise viable.

Another positive sign for the suitability of this enterprise came from Michael’s interest in Archaeology. He discovered in old documents that hazels used to be present in large numbers across the area’s hillsides. In fact, the nearby place name Kelton was probably derived from the Scots Gaelic word for a hazel tree: ‘calltainn’. It bodes well for the future orchard to know hazels have prospered here historically and it seems fitting that a kind of hazel forest will be returning to this landscape.

Enterprise Budgeting & Market Research

An orchard of any kind requires a large investment of money, energy and time, so the first thing we did for Michael when he got in touch was to make a bespoke enterprise budget for him and conduct research on potential market outlets such as wholesalers.

If Michael were to simply let the land out for sheep grazing, he might be looking at a total income of £2,215, assuming £85/acre/year in rent for 21.5 acres of grazing and a total payment of £385/year from the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme. He would also receive £223/hectare from the Basic Payment Scheme, but this would apply whether he grazed the land or grew hazelnuts. In contrast, our enterprise budgeting estimated that 1 hectare alone of mature hazelnuts would give gross margins between £750 and £6,000 per year depending on the yields and type of end product (e.g. in-shell vs. shelled nuts). With the aim to eventually plant just over 7 hectares of hazelnuts, a mature orchard for Michael could have total gross margins ranging from £5,000 to £21,000 per year by conservative estimates.

Currently, the most relevant information we have for hazelnut yields is based on data from Southern England. The data suggests that 1.2 to 2 tonnes per hectare or 3-5kg per tree is normal, and newer hazelnut cultivars may even average 3 tonnes per hectare (Crawford reference). Although, given the orchard’s location in Scotland, we had to express caution that yields would be as high as this, particularly because the climate isn’t as warm and sunny, and cross-pollination is more difficult here with wetter and windier weather. We have a more generalised, but very similar, enterprise budget for hazelnut orchards available here if you want more details on potential income and costs.

Next steps

Following the market research and our initial talks with Michael, the plan was to help him apply to the Scottish Government’s agroforestry option for the Forestry Grant Scheme. This scheme supports the planting of either 150-200 or 300-400 trees per hectare (maximum of 15 hectares) for the aims of 1) timber production, 2) biodiversity, or 3) fruit/nut production. The Scottish Forestry team have a helpful pre-application process for this grant where they can visit your site and flag any potential issues that you’ll need to address in your actual application. Michael’s plan was to plant 400 hazel trees per hectare on 7 hectares of the site under aim 3. With the trees being situated in permanent grassland, the idea was to still cut the grass but use it to fertilise/mulch the trees as needed, instead of using it for silage/hay.

However, this proved to be an unexpected barrier because grass used in this way doesn’t constitute a ‘proper agricultural product’. According to RPID rules, the permanent grassland would have to be used for grazing or for silage/hay production in order to be compatible with the agroforestry scheme. For Michael, both alternatives were out of the question since the site was too steep and difficult to access to make silage/hay production viable, and he had no interest looking after sheep, particularly because he didn’t live on site. 

We tried to appeal for a change in this rule by writing to the RPID, and then to Scottish Greens MSP Ariane Burgess after making no headway. Unfortunately, we were unable to make any progress as of yet, but it is an issue on which we’ll continue to push. Ultimately, it was because this project was veering too much into the territory of being an orchard (producing one crop) as opposed to agroforestry (producing dual crops) that would have made the application unsuccessful. While it was a shame to encounter such barriers (a recurring theme with Scotland’s agricultural schemes) for a stockfree project that could deliver so many of the benefits that ScotGov champions (sustainable, local production of whole foods), it points to a wider problem too. Namely, the lack of funding options for orchards in Scotland. If such options were available, this project and no doubt many others like it would fit perfectly, accelerating the production of home-grown fruits and nuts.

Back to the Drawing Board

Despite the disappointing end to pursuing the agroforestry grant, it wasn’t long before a new course of action was chosen. After sifting through a plethora of private tree planting schemes in Scotland, we were able to find three schemes applicable to Michael: 

1. Reforesting Scotland’s Small Tree Planting Grant
2. Dumfries & Galloway Tree Planting Grant Scheme
3. GSA Biosphere & Ayrshire Tree Planting Programme

Each application was very straightforward and fortunately all three of our applications were successful, totalling about £3,000 in funds. As a charity, we were also able to match fund these grants, doubling the amount to £6,000. Adding to the string of successes, we grasped a last-minute opportunity to apply for a $1,000 grant offered by the North American Veganic Certification Standard (their grants are globally available), adding an extra £750 or so towards the project.

Orchards are, however, expensive to establish, and £6,750 isn’t quite enough for establishing even 1 hectare. Instead, the main purpose of this initial investment was to buy hazelnut cultivars and use them as nursery trees for the orchard. Hazelnuts can be reliably and simply propagated by a technique called layering (of which there are different types of layering). Layering, at its simplest, consists of taking a young supple stem, cutting off the bark on a small section and then bending this stem down so that the wounded section can be buried in soil. This will encourage roots to grow from the wounded section, thus creating a clone which can be removed from the parent tree and planted elsewhere to become a fully-fledged hazelnut tree. 

Propagation by this method (as opposed to growing from seed) retains the all-important characteristics of the commercially bred variety it came from, such as high yields, nut bearing consistency, nut size and taste. And once the orchard is fully planted, the nursery trees can be left to become cropping trees. Unlike other fruit and nut trees, hazels can be grown on their own roots and don’t require grafting, simplifying the propagation process further.

The downside to expanding the orchard with this method is that the nursery trees themselves take several years to become established before layering can be used on them. So, it is a slow process and will mean that the trees will come into peak production in staggered phases. On the other hand, this method is straightforward and inexpensive, requiring little in the way of extra equipment. As the subsequent waves of propagated clones get established, the number of trees that can be propagated each year will begin to snowball and indeed there is an opportunity to diversify into selling nursery hazel trees if desired. Considering that commercial hazelnut cultivars can retail for upwards of £18/hazel (cheaper if sold wholesale), a not insignificant return could be made from this.

Finalising The Plan

With grant funding secured and a long-term strategy to expand the orchard in place, the remaining tasks were to design the layout of the orchard, purchase the trees and tree protection items and prepare the site for planting.

Thanks to the great work put out by Oregon State University (see their collection of articles) and Martin Crawford (see his book or online course), designing the orchard was relatively straightforward. First, a range of hazelnut varieties were selected for reliable yields including Corabel, Gunslebert, Lang Tidlig Zeller and Nottingham. Then, two varieties, Cosford and Hall’s Giant, were picked in smaller numbers, to act primarily as pollinator trees for the other higher yielding cultivars (Martin Crawford’s resources above include helpful pollination compatibility matrices). To ensure sufficient pollination, every third tree in every third row would be one of these ‘pollinator’ varieties. And a good rule of thumb for hazel orchards is to have a pollinator tree within 15m distance of the tree(s) to be pollinated.  

For protecting the trees, two methods were used for this project. Since one of the tree planting grants was actually for the Dumfries and Galloway area, 48 of the nursery hazels would be planted at Michael’s smaller site, with the remaining 180 going to A’ Chaltainn. At the smaller site, it made more economical sense to individually protect each hazel. Whereas at A’ Chaltainn, a deer fence was erected to protect the much larger number of trees there. This would also require less labour than individually protecting each tree and would make pruning and grass management easier. Furthermore, the hazels at A’ Chaltainn were planted more densely (tighter spacings are fine for nursery trees), reducing the fencing perimeter and saving on costs. Once they’ve fulfilled their nursery function, this block of hazels will be thinned (every other tree removed) which will provide ample space for them to become cropping trees.

Establishment & Looking Ahead

Even with all the plans and preparations in place, there were a few more unexpected hiccups to contend with like a jump in price for fencing costs, having to switch nursery supplier, and a late delivery of the hazels. The late delivery was particularly troublesome, requiring Michael – with the help of his son Craig – to hastily plant all 228 hazels across the two sites as the trees were coming out of dormancy. Despite their less than optimum starting conditions, the hazels are coping well and on track to prosper.

Thinking ahead to when the hazels start cropping, Michael wants to sell them in-shell or shelled at first as this requires the least amount of processing equipment. As more income is brought in from sales, he hopes to purchase other processing equipment to make different hazelnut products. He’s particularly keen to produce hazelnut butter, which we definitely second! Processing hazelnuts in different ways (e.g. roasting, blanching, chopping) adds significantly more value to the product, and combined with its local provenance, this will make it a much sought-after food.

While the potential earnings are no doubt a draw of producing hazelnuts, Michael had deeper motivations for starting this endeavour. Firstly, Michael wanted to showcase a productive and sustainable alternative for this bit of land that would otherwise be used for grazing or as a conifer plantation. Being aware of the health benefits of hazelnuts, their culinary possibilities and their prevalence in our diets and landscapes historically, he was also keen to develop a Scottish food culture around hazelnuts. And finally, there was an altruistic reason to create something that will nourish his family, community and the environment for years to come in the face of climate change and pressures on food security.

We’re very grateful to have helped Michael along to the point where he is now and will continue providing support to this project as needed. It will be especially exciting to see A’ Chaltainn grow over the long-term and we hope many others will be inspired to do the same! 

You can hear more from Michael about the hazel orchard in our video: