The Community and the Findhorn Foundation have gone through cycles of tremendous change, often triggered by a financial crisis. The years preceding the buying of the caravan park in 1983 represented such a time.

In Spring 2023 this Topic is timely, as yet again we are in a time of profound change, and it contributes background information to the present Community explorations regarding the Community Commons , the development of The Park Ecovillage, the many changes in the Findhorn Foundation and the evolving relationship between the Community and the Findhorn Foundation.

In 1978 the Community was 16 years old. After a time of tremendous expansion both on the level of people and of properties, it found itself in a crisis of consciousness and finances.

Social and leadership dynamics

For many years, the strong leadership provided by Peter Caddy (directed by the guidance received by Eileen) had given purpose and focus to the growing community. From June 1970 to June 1979, there had been tremendous growth with the membership growing from 20 to 350.

In November 1973, Peter and Eileen were invited to do a speaking tour in the United States the following spring. In preparation Eileen’s guidance said a core group was needed. It not only was responsible for the executive functions held by Peter, but also for the inner awareness and direction held by Eileen. Peter Caddy described in his autobiography the forming of the Core Group. Core group held the responsibility for the community whenever Peter (and often Eileen) were away on tour and met 3-5 times a week according to need.

The community experienced many significant problems during the late 1970s. Symptoms of change in leadership were tangible in several instances of ‘tussles’ over decisions, particularly around taking on further assets, with divergent opinions regarding debt. There were also social and relationship problems which undermined trust and connection. The many different and, at times contradictory, demands of living in community, organising educational programmes, accommodating hundreds if not thousands of guests became seemingly unmanageable burdens. In addition to that, different large projects (for instance Drumduan renovations, Universal Hall construction) competed for limited people power and resources. This led to episodes of intense activity followed by times when projects such as the Hall lay fallow for extended periods, creating further problems.

Many community members found themselves getting personally poor and under-resourced. An exodus of members began in the weeks leading up to Peter’s departure in late November 1979. Then followed 3+ years of austerity, envisioning and spiritual realignment, by which time membership was down to 50% from that height.

François Duquesne took on focalisation of the core group and the Findhorn Foundation in the late spring/early summer 1979 as described in Transition in Leadership: Peter to François by Gordon Cutler. He was aware that what was needed was leadership, presence and purpose. It took 2 years to generate this focus and direction. In a concerted effort, many people attended to two main aspects:

  1. down to basics – good solid management and work practices
  2. revitalising the arts and the resulting nourishment of community spirit.

François’ spontaneous recollection of those days is captured in a recorded conversation.

All this came to fruition in 1982 when the Community was finally ready to formulate three goals for 1983 which galvanised the collective to come together:

  1. to finish the Universal Hall
  2. to balance the budget
  3. to buy the caravan park

And those goals were all achieved.

For the time period relevant to the story of buying the caravan park it is important to note that the Findhorn Foundation and the Community were one and the same. All Community members were members, and the workforce, of the Findhorn Foundation. This changed in 1983 when the divergence started with the associate members programme.

Financial situation

In the 1970s the Findhorn Foundation expanded its assets base dramatically. In 1972 it was gifted the Park Building and surrounding land which enabled the establishment of the first College, as well as the building of the Universal Hall which commenced in 1974.

As the number of community members increased and the education activities expanded, several big houses were acquired by the Foundation (1975 Cluny Hill, 1978 Cullerne House, the following year Station House). Drumduan was gifted to the Foundation in 1978. Other properties were bought by members and partly used for community purposes (Cluny Bank 1978-80, Harbour House, Newbold House in 1979 which became its own charitable trust) whilst others were rented. Minton House was bought by the Meynells.

In the late 1970s the Findhorn Foundation found itself in significant debt, most of it caused by taking on properties in the 1970s requiring renovations and upkeep, lease and ground rent payments to the caravan park owner Captain Gibson, but also through poor expenditure planning and an under-resourced accounts department that did not produce up-to-date reports. There was also a misunderstanding of manifestation and the nature of, and pre-conditions for, abundance and the need for collective “right will”.

Purchasing the Caravan Park made financial sense as it fulfilled two objectives:

  1. Reducing overheads of the crippling ground rent payments
  2. Acquiring a going business (the Holiday Park) which would generate the income to repay the debt.

It also addressed the issue of a contract made early on with the owner of the caravan park, Captain Gibson. Ike Isaksen, who was chairman of the Executive Committee recalls that this contract stipulated that the Foundation was leasing some land and paying ground rent for all the other caravans/bungalows, and that this contract would expire in 1984 at which point all the properties on the land would revert and become property of Captain Gibson. Ike tells his Story behind buying the Caravan Park.

Click here to read a reminiscence by Jeremy Slocombe on ‘How we bought the caravan park’ in the GENESIS magazine issue XI, August 1997.

Mark Anderson, present chair of trustees of the Findhorn Foundation compiled the Sequence of events relating to the Purchase of The Caravan Park and Pineridge.

Aerial view of Caravan Park with Universal Hall late 1970s

Walking Our Talk

For quite a long time there was a sense in the field that the Foundation should be owning the place as it had become obvious that the Community ‘would not be able to live our lives to our values within the limitations dictated by the landlord (Captain Gibson)’.

Often our conferences brought into focus the issues that were relevant for the Community at the time. This was certainly true for

16-30 Oct 1982 ONEARTH GATHERING – BUILDING A PLANETARY VILLAGE James Hubbell, Sim van der Ryn, Eileen Caddy, Wendell Berry, John & Nancy Todd, Keith Critchlow, Andre Gregory, Sir George Trevelyan, Diana Whitmore, Guy Dauncey, John Twidell
Focalisers: John Talbott, Roger Doudna

This conference was the perfect preparation for the decision making process the members embarked upon in the following months. This lengthy process is described by Amanda Haworth and Leona Graham in ‘The vital importance – and beauty – of community consultation’

Manifesting the Caravan Park

Giles Chitty was managing the Shop in the late 1970s and, as he had a business background, became part of the Finance Group with Michael Lindfield and Daniel Ofman. He recounts: ‘In addressing the debt problem we initiated a Capital Division which offered friends and supporters of the Community to invest their capital (a value based context) in line with their values, rather than those of financial institutions. At the time we were legally able to pay interest (this is now only possible for specifically structured organisations), even if we didn’t pay market rates, our investors could have a financial return and contribute to a venture they believed in. This was before the concept of ethical investment entered the mainstream.’

The Capital Division managed to raise a quarter of a million pounds from friends which gave the Foundation the means to eventually repay all bank loans and consolidate our finances. This gave us the confidence to go ahead and manifest the funds needed to purchase the caravan park.

In 1982 François Duquesne, the Foundation Focaliser, went on tour to the USA as he did every year, and met Betty Didcoct from the Turtle Island Fund* which had an endowment fund dedicated to helping communities buy land under the condition that it was held in trust under covenants to manage these lands ecologically. When hearing about the plans to buy the caravan park they were willing to contribute $50,000. A declaration was added to the Foundation’s trust deed in November 1983 to ensure “That all lands and properties under the custodianship of the Foundation, whether owned by the Trust or not, shall be so managed that they not only provide facilities for the furthering of the immediate objectives of the Trust but that they shall be also replenished and preserved for the use and enjoyment of the future generations of the Earth.”

To comply with this declaration as much as possible within the context of Scottish law and financial realities, the Findhorn Foundation has been proactive in an evolving process of legal structures as described by Alex Walker in From Turtle Island to the THA.

To make the manifestation efforts more tangible, a map of the Park was divided in squares. The Turtle Island Trust grant filled a substantial number of those squares, to manifest the rest individual community members engaged personally. Alex Walker remembers: “I do recall that we all picked one out of a metaphorical hat and to my surprise when I picked one Jeremy had written “The whole jolly lot” on it. A naughty trick.” Thus, in a tremendous effort every single member took responsibility for the manifestation and contributed in a huge variety of ways. One of those ways was a letter written by Jeremy Slocombe which was sent out to all former members, visitors and supporters, each one signed by hand by Eileen Caddy. This inspired hundreds of people to make their contribution.

£276,720 of the purchase price of £361,000 was raised that way. The remainder was covered by a loan from the seller which was repaid in instalments throughout 1984 with the last cheque handed over on 17th November 1984.

Caravan Park Appeal 1984

New Findhorn Directions (NFD) was set up by the trustees of the Findhorn Foundation as a wholly owned subsidiary to run the business of the caravan park. They took on operations on 1st January 1983 whilst it was still owned by Captain Gibson and has continued to operate it since.

It was such a wonderful feeling to own the caravan park and develop the land in line with our values. It all started on the ground in 1987 with the building of the extension to the Community Centre and with Roger Doudna building the first whisky barrel house. This was followed in 1990 with the development of the Bag End Cluster and since then the Park Ecovillage continues to take shape.

Resources for further in depth explorations:

As part of the research for this Topic Mark Anderson delved into the Foundation’s archives and compiled a summary and Alex Walker described the journey from Turtle Island Trust to the THA.

Faces of Findhorn published in 1980 is a wonderful contemporary record of the times just prior to the profound changes seen in the following years. Giles Chitty contributed an article on Manifestation, Finance and Right Livelihood.

Carol Riddell was a new member in 1983 and described her experience in her chapter The Early 1980: Caution and Entrenchment in The Kingdom Within compiled and edited by Alex Walker (1993).

Independently but in perfect synchronicity with us working on the Topic, Alex Wright and Callum Bell interviewed John Talbott who shared his own story spanning the decades of building the ecovillage Building an Ecovillage by John Talbott

Patrick Nash describes The first building school 1990

Simon Stedman, in his interview with William Bloom in 2022 covered a wide range of topics, from his personal journey with gay conversion therapy to how he came to Findhorn and took on the post of Finance lead for 2 years during the pandemic. He describes his role in changing the culture around staff employment.

* Betty Didcoct – Executive Director Turtle Island Fund (Mar 1980 – Dec 1985, 5 years 10 months)
“Turtle Island Fund gave grants to charitable non-profit groups that were land based and doing work in some aspect of earth stewardship. These groups put their land in trust and created covenants that managed their lands ecologically. As Executive Director, I did field site visits, project evaluation, and administered the grant program with the assistance of a small advisory board.
This fund is no longer operating.”

From conversations with Giles Chitty, François Duquesne, and Gordon Cutler collated by Cornelia Featherstone April 2023

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Topics are a ‘reader’s digest’, a summary of essential Community facets offering a compilation of posts for further information. Click here for a list of Topics we have produced so far.

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