Our fields
Meet the team
Our core team is made up of a talented group of enthusiastic individuals. Many of the methods that will be used on this project have been developed at Water Gems (Alba) Ltd, an award-winning landscape design and water features specialist based in central Scotland, with a highly skilled team of ecological landscape designers and water-feature technicians who specialise in pond, stream and cascade construction.
About
Nick Benge
Trustee
Nick's boundless energy and enthusiasm are the driving force of this project, and numerous others. Nick has a degree in Biological Sciences specialising in Ecology and a Masters in Aquaculture. Nick lives in Edinburgh where he founded Water Gems (Alba) Ltd with his wife, Annie.
Annie Benge
Trustee
Annie has been key in the smooth running of Water Gems for over 25 years, and is a great support to the Roborough team with her ideas and admin skills including being the 'Friends of the Fields' newsletter editor.
Andrew Mounstephen
Trustee
Andrew has always been a fan of wild places, and is a firm believer that we need many more of them! Andrew has a very useful professional background in the dreaded Health & Safety field.
Kevin McKie
Kevin is particularly interested in building and maintaining ponds. He was instrumental in installing various bird boxes and the Swallow shelter. You will also notice a bank that he built on our map!
Stephen MacDonald
Stephen is the Environmental Officer at Water Gems. He helped with the initial landscaping work of our fields, and now has a pond he dug named after him.
Stuart Booth
Stuart has been a key member of the team. He is great in a digger and has been a key driving force in the construction of the wet-field at Roborough. He of course has a large pond he dug named after him.
Luis Adamson
Luis had spare time on her hands during lockdown, and put her newly acquired skills in web-design to the test and built the original Rewilding Roborough Fields website.
Michael Roe
Michael has always had a keen interest in nature. He supports numerous conservation and rewilding bodies such as Trees for Life and Scotland: The Big Picture.
Rachael Booth
Rachael has helped with administration tasks, and supported Stuart whilst he has been involved in the landscaping work on site.
Rob Fisher
Trustee
Paul Hopkinson
Paul has been monitoring the fields on a regular basis alongside Jo. His fantastic photography skills have filled the website with a visual record of the wildlife that has moved in, and as an artist he has painted some of the residents too.
Jo Everitt
Jo has been monitoring the fields on a regular basis. She takes some of the website photos, and tries to identify and collate all the species seen. Jo has recently started to update the website, and will soon be working on the social media accounts too.
Shetlands
Shetland sheep are a fine-boned species, with small feet that do less damage. As a very hardy, versatile forager, they can be relatively self-sufficient, and are ideal for conservation grazing.
Tamworths
Tamworths are a hardy old breed, with long snouts ideal for disturbing the soil, weakening predominant grasses and creating bare spaces. This allows for a much wider biodiversity to develop. They are certainly habitat engineers.
Red Ruby Devons
An indigenous, relatively small, quiet breed, the Red Rubies are ideal conservation grazers. Their introduction lightly poaches the ground, and opens up areas of overgrown vegetation, creating opportunities for new species to take hold.
Yellow Rattle
Rhinanthus minor
"The meadow maker"
