A Surfer Bought a 280-Acre Dead Sheep Farm — and Ireland's Lost Rainforest Began to Return

A Surfer Bought a 280-Acre Dead Sheep Farm — and Ireland's Lost Rainforest Began to Return In 2022, a surfer from Cornwall helped buy a 280-acre abandoned sheep farm in western Ireland—not to farm it, but to stop farming it altogether. What looked like empty hillside was actually one of the last places on Earth where an almost-lost Atlantic rainforest could still return. Today, that bold rewilding experiment is becoming one of Ireland's most fascinating ecological restoration projects. This documentary tells the remarkable story of Hometree founders Matt Smith and Ray Ó Foghlú, who purchased Cnocán Bán in the Maam Valley of Connemara to restore Ireland's ancient Atlantic temperate rainforest. By removing sheep, reducing grazing pressure, restoring blanket bogs, protecting native woodland, planting locally sourced oak, birch, alder, willow and Scots pine, and allowing natural regeneration to work alongside active restoration, they are rebuilding one of Europe's rarest ecosystems. The project combines rewilding, native forest restoration, Atlantic rainforest recovery, peatland restoration, biodiversity conservation, natural regeneration, deer management, and climate resilience. The science behind the project is extraordinary. Ireland once held nearly 80% forest cover, yet ancient woodland now survives on less than 0.3% of the island. Atlantic temperate rainforest exists on less than 1% of Earth's land surface, making it rarer than many tropical rainforest ecosystems. Scientists believe restoring native woodland, peat bogs, rivers, and ecological connectivity will improve biodiversity, increase carbon storage, protect salmon rivers, support endangered lichens, fungi, mosses, pine martens, woodland birds, and rebuild ecological processes lost for over 6,000 years. We explore the science behind rewilding, Atlantic rainforest ecology, ecological succession, peatland restoration, native tree propagation, carbon sequestration, ecosystem resilience, and why simply removing grazing pressure can allow nature to rebuild itself over generations. • The purchase of the 280-acre Cnocán Bán sheep farm by Hometree in 2022 • The removal of sheep and the beginning of Ireland's Atlantic rainforest restoration • The ambitious plan to restore thousands of acres of native woodland across western Ireland We discover ecological restoration, rewilding, conservation science, native forests, and the hidden ecological processes rebuilding landscapes around the world.