A COMMUNITY woodland in the heart of the Borders has been devastated by a deliberate fire.

The central meeting hut at Wooplaw Woods, which was designed and built by founder Tim Stead, was torched by vandals sometime overnight on Monday into Tuesday.

Volunteers at the woodland, close to the hamlet of Blainslie, have described the destruction as heartbreaking.

David Donnelly from Selkirk is one of the volunteers who help manage the 20 hectare woodland.

He told us: "We have had problems with vandalism before but nothing like this.

"The police asked about the value of the hut, but I told them it's in many ways priceless.

"The late Tim Stead used the first wood harvested from Wooplaw after it became a community woodland to build the hut.

"It was a unique design built with unique wood - how do you put a value on that?"

Wooplaw Woods became the first community woodland in the entire UK 30 years ago.

It was the brainchild of the late Tim Stead, who was a well-known wood sculptor and furniture maker.

Mr Stead raised the money to launch the initiative by making and selling wooden axeheads.

Over the past 30 years thousands of trees have been planted by volunteers as well as trails, wildlife ponds and additional sculptures being created.

And the original meeting huts have remained popular with youth and community groups taking advantage of the outdoors.

Mr Donnelly added: "The volunteers will put their heads together over the next few days to come up with some sort of replacement plan.

"We have been overwhelmed with messages of support and offers of help since this happened.

"It's heartbreaking to see the damage but I'm hopeful we can build another hut - I just hope those responsible see the anger and outrage their actions have caused."

As well as setting fire to the central hut, the vandals also ripped the door from a nearby composting toilet.

Local police officers and detectives visited the site on Tuesday afternoon as they stepped up their investigations to catch the culprits.

PC Jack Houston said: "Vandals have caused significant damage to a community facility which will cost over a thousand pounds to repair.

"We are carrying out enquiries in the area and are keen to speak to anyone who may have seen or heard anything suspicious, or may have noticed the fire as it would have been visible through the wooded area particularly during the hours of darkness."

Anyone with information about the fire can call Police Scotland on 101 quoting reference 1338 of Tuesday, October 17.