The Dispersed Memorial Forest
A Community Covid Memorial for Dumfries and Galloway
The Covid Memorial for Scotland’s Dumfries and Galloway is a memorial forest, planted across the region in five locations: Castle Douglas, Dumfries, Moffat, Sanquhar, and Stranraer. Over 400 native trees were planted as a way to remember and honour each person who died from COVID-19 in the region. Additional trees were planted to represent other types of loss, and the ways communities came together over the pandemic.
The Dispersed Memorial Forest is part of Scotland-wide project, Remembering Together, which worked between 2022-24 to co-create memorials to honour those we lost, mark what has changed in our lives, and preserve the best of what we learned and created together during the Covid pandemic. Artists and creative organisations were commissioned in each of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas.
In Dumfries & Galloway, Commissioned Artists t s Beall and Katie Anderson worked with communities to collaboratively design and plant The Dispersed Memorial Forest across the region. The artists began working with communities in 2022, exploring how to remember and honour those impacted by Covid.
Between July-December 2022 (Phase 1), the artists brought a sculptural Tree of Remembrance to large public events across D&G, and hosted smaller postcard-making workshops and conversational events with community groups – including NHS staff, unpaid carers, young people, and New Scots. These activities were designed to encourage people to share their experiences, and to help decide the shape of D&G’s Covid Memorial.
In workshops and conversations during Phase 1, the artists spoke to over 800 people from towns and communities across the region. Through those conversations, three key elements for the memorial emerged, which were then collaboratively developed in Phase 2: The Dispersed Memorial Forest, a series of Tree Planting and Community Gathering events, and an Archive sharing stories of loss and resilience from across the region. The artists asked what people wanted to remember about lockdown, and what they wished they could forget, or let go of. Some of their answers, collected as a series of postcards and ribbons, are inscribed into the sculptural markers that are installed on each forest site.
Partners & Funders
Remembering Together D&G was commissioned by greenspace Scotland, DG Unlimited, and Dumfries and Galloway Council with funding from the Scottish Government. Site Partners for The Dispersed Memorial Forest include NHS Dumfries and Galloway and Dumfries and Galloway Health Board Endowment Fund, The Crichton Trust, Dumfries and Galloway Council, Moffat Community Nature Reserve, National Trust for Scotland Threave Estate, and Sanquhar Enterprise. Some of the trees planted in the Memorial Forest were purchased with the support of the Dumfries & Galloway Tree Planting Grant Scheme.
Learn more about the project: Phase 1 and Phase 2.