Paul Lister, the British philanthropist who owns the Alladale Wilderness Reserve in the Scottish Highlands, has come out to welcome us as we arrive at the main lodge, our tyres crunching the gravel outside the grey Victorian manor house. “I’ve just spotted a sea eagle,” he cries with a huge grin. “It’s the first time I’ve seen one here.” No wonder he is excited. Once hunted to extinction in Britain, sea eagles have started reappearing in Scotland and now there are an estimated 150 breeding pairs. Their comeback is, in part, thanks to rewilding projects by people like Lister; Alladale is one of the 22 members that make up the Scottish Rewilding Alliance. The term “rewilding” describes conservation efforts aimed at restoring and protecting natural processes and wilderness areas. The goal is to revive lost interactions between animals and plants, thus regenerating ecosystems, which should have beneficial consequences not just for the species that are recovering but also for the wider living world, including us humans. Using money inherited from his philanthropic father, Noel – the multimillionaire founder of furniture retailer MFI – Lister set up a nature conservation trust to protect and restore wild parts of Europe. The trust funds rewilding in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Romania, as well as Alladale, which Lister considers his home and one of Britain’s great rewilding projects. “We Britons take great pride in our countryside, but few realise how badly we have damaged it over the past 500 years,” he says, as we sink into chairs in the lodge’s cosy sitting room, a fire blazing in the hearth. “The Romans described Scotland as being ‘The Great Wood of Caledon’; a mosaic of many tree species of all ages and with some open glades”; a far cry from the current patchwork of agricultural land. The forests that once sustained wild boar, beavers, bears, lynxes and wolves have all but disappeared, Lister says. Ocean Park highlights six endangered Hong Kong animal species “When you fly over the UK and Europe and look out of the window, all you see is farmland. A few patches of forest here and there but for the large part we’ve destroyed most of our wild landscapes. We love to lecture people in Brazil or Indonesia about burning forests, but what we’ve done is worse.” With no large predators in Britain’s wild spaces, herds of deer graze unchecked on saplings, making it impossible for forests to establish themselves. In 2003, Lister acquired the 150-year-old Alladale Lodge and its 9,300 hectares, which had been a private hunting reserve, with a mission to restore the balance. He began replanting the barren hills with trees (he’s up to nearly a million, with no plans to stop); controlling the deer population through a culling programme (he eats, serves or sells the venison, nose to tail); and reintroducing species that disappeared from the region many years ago, such as red squirrels, pine martens, Scottish wildcats, beavers and, eventually, within a large fenced area, wolves. The fencing would be for the safety of paying guests, but also the walkers, ramblers and cyclists who enjoy public access through Alladale under the Right to Roam law. It’s a vast undertaking but Lister is not easily deterred. Initially, the locals said he was mad, calling the project “Jurassic Park” and nicknaming him “the Wolf Man”. “Now, they’ve not only accepted what I’m doing, but they are starting to rewild their own estates,” he laughs, pointing out the young trees planted by a neighbour as we cycle past. Central to his vision is to maintain a steady stream of funds from tourism. With that in mind, Lister hired quintessentially British designer Laura Ashley to give Alladale Lodge a revamp. The twee tartan was replaced with patterned wallpaper and vibrant soft furnishings whilst many of the original features – such as the cast-iron fireplaces and the servant bells in the bedrooms (though they have been out of action for years) – have been retained. Each of the seven bedroom suites in Alladale Lodge is named after one of the tree species being replanted across the reserve, including Willow, Aspen, Holly, Rowan and Birch. Rooms are high-ceilinged, wood-panelled and offer panoramic views of the vast craggy landscape. Entering the lodge feels like walking into a well-travelled friend’s home. Romantic landscape prints adorn the walls along with Lister’s personal mementos, art and antiques. Shelves are crammed with books about Scotland, nature and Europe, and a number of John Grisham novels. A huge oil painting of his father hangs over the stairwell. Alladale does not sell itself as a luxury offering; it is too authentic. Lister encourages visitors to walk around in their socks, and it’s rare to see him inside without fluffy slippers on his feet. From the main lodge, the two cottages, Eagle’s Crag (sleeps up to eight) and Ghillie’s Rest (sleeps up to four) are a walk or short bike ride away and enjoy views over the Alladale River and trees that are 400 years old. These cottages were neglected “bothies”, basic shelters left unlocked for ramblers to use. They were rebuilt as stone cottages with exposed beams and high ceilings. For those looking for a complete “off-grid” experience there is Deanich, a 150-year-old former deer-hunting lodge that can sleep 18, with no Wi-fi, no television, and completely self-catered. It is now often booked by those needing a healing reset from the stress of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sustainability is pivotal to Alladale’s ethos, and all building materials and furnishings, reclaimed and new, are sourced in Scotland (for instance, curtains by local fabric maker Anta and plates from local pottery company Tain). About 65 per cent of the lodge’s electricity comes from Alladale’s hydroelectric generator, with plans for a solar-powered lodge in the making. A state-of-the-art aquaponics centre provides a plentiful supply of vegetables, from aubergines to squash, tomatoes to zucchinis, lettuce to runner beans, all fertilised by the waste of rainbow trout, some of which end up, succulently fresh, on guest plates. I’m told all this over a dinner of home-cooked venison shepherd’s pie accompanied by vegetables that have travelled less than 100 metres. The next day, when a handsome group of stags gaze into my bedroom window, I feel barely a twinge of guilt. Alladale reserve manager Innes MacNeill, his colleague Ryan and his Labrador puppy Baxter know the reserve intimately and give us a tour. They show us the wild salmon leaping up waterfalls to return to their birthplace; explain the merits of the different tree species found on the property (willows are necessary for beavers and wading birds, Caledonian pine support red squirrels and provide shelter for deer); and point out the golden eagle’s nest, built to attract the birds by eagle expert Roy Dennis in a 300-year-old tree. A herd of adorable fringed Highland cattle fertilise the lowlands and keep the ground aerated. MacNeill explains that 2,500 students from six local schools have visited the reserve through Howl (Highland Outdoor Wilderness Learning), a pro bono young people’s education programme, to engage in tree planting and other conservation projects. But the real draw of Alladale is the excitement of what is to come. Many of the trees being planted are slow growers and will take decades to mature. It will be another 10 to 15 years before Lister can reintroduce beavers – that’s how long it will take for the riparian (riverside) trees they need to build their dams to grow – and a pack or two of wolves will require permission from the government and the not-small undertaking of a 80km fence. But every year, rare animals and plants appear on the reserve of their own accord, like the sea eagle and the delicate little twinflower, a plant species decimated due to loss of native woodlands but discovered at Alladale last year. Each new arrival is an encouraging sign. Lister, 62, who is childless and unmarried, believes he has found his purpose. “People measure legacy on how much money they have made or the success of their career, but that doesn’t really matter. What is important is what you can do for the greater good of the environment and future generations.” And good things, clearly, come to those who wait. The writer was a guest of the Alladale Wilderness Reserve.