Glen Torridon Drive Through Saturday 1st December
Fortuitously or not a planned visit to see friends in Shieldaig turned into a forestry outing this weekend. 28th to 30th November ’24. I had already had a tip off that the scheme on the Ben Damph side of Ben Shieldaig had come over the hill and my source was concerned that it was, it has and it looks like more of the same. Which is quite disturbing.
I am afraid that there are major issues there that need to be discussed. But whilst in Shieldaig a post by James Fenton popped up on my ipad/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7268219162194333697/
As I happened to be passing on Saturday I thought I would take a look from the roadside. My wife would not be happy if I tramped off into the Glen floor!!!!
Sure enough as I drove past the old house on the North side of the Glen, (in my day occupied by a Mr Riley, always busy with walkers and climbers), I saw the reported ‘Compartments’.
There may be a perfectly reasonable reason why, but given the performance of the Scottish Woodland Trust at Ben Damph/Glen Shieldaig, I for one would be concerned that planting trees where trees should not be planted in this Glen was in the air.
Back to the start of my West/East travels. At the start of the Glen just past the visitor centre I pulled up and photographed this plantation (now without fences). A very poor attempt to introduce native species, on ground where no tree wants to be!! I am unsure did fire play a part in checking these poor trees, as there was a major fire in the area after my time. I had been involved here digging out mounds with a Rutter Spade (torture) and even back then wondering : ‘What the hell are we doing here’, but in these days who would question the Forester or the National Trust? I remember these small mounds with a tree perched on top, thinking, they will dry out. Well it looks to me that they did not do well, in fact I am surprised they grew at all.
Heading back to the Glen Floor, these new compartments are reminiscent of the ‘Roundells we used to put up to do Habitat Impact Assessments/prove that tree regeneration would or would not grow.
I will mention now that I was in a previous life a forestry contractor for Scottish Woodlands, in all aspects of forestry, untrained, text books being my source of information, a hands on kind of forester. But after a while questioning some of the things I/we as a squad were asked to do, Ah, the good old days. That is where my interest in forestry came from and has been a passion ever since.
Here is my take. My first job in Glen Torridon was in the predominantly Sitka plantation West of Mr Riley’s house, across the road from the Council depot. Brashing, felling and re-spacing trees. Since then the already porous fence has been removed. I remember being given permission to shoot an unfortunate stag in there, he was not causing much of a problem. Poor stag, Seamus the Ranger was not too bothered. Another was cutting down non natives in another compartment, which included decades old Beech trees, which we flatly refused to do. That resulted in us (the squad) having a stand off with SNH at the time, (early 90s) where we refused to cut down the non native Beech in the small compartment on the South side of the road as you turn to head down the Glen. The trees had seeded in an old Fank and were , I would guess 70/80 years old then. They are still there.
In the picture above the photos are pretty small but there are bigger compartments, I seem to remember that there were three of them around potential seed sources for regeneration. Around the burns coming off the hill. It was difficult to see off the road and I would love to visit again, maybe one day when time allows. But from the road with binoculars I cannot see any discernable difference on this one, no real re-generation and it must be thirty years since I wealked this fence, that tells you something). I could check my diaries but I guess the timeline of these compartments would be the mid 90s. Interestingly when working on these schemes the walkers passing (and there were many) used to be pretty angry with the Nature Conservancy/National Trust? who owned it at the time. They were angry that an attempt to grow trees in this Glen was being carried out, what about the views they complained, a hilarious statement when you consider the almost religious fervour that ‘tree planting’ gets to-day.
But no wonder, when you consider the npossibility of a plantation in the future blocking the view from the road of the famous ‘Valley of a Hundred Hills’: The remarkable Coire a’ Cheud-chnoic, or Valley of a Hundred Hills, is one of the best examples of hummocky moraine in Scotland. https://www.scottishgeologytrust.org/geology/51-best-places/beinn-eighe-nnr-and-loch-maree-torridon/ Why would you want to plant this up? For sure the famous Scots Pine forest of Coulin is just down the road but it is telling that the Scots Pine has not spread up the Glen, WHY?
In the meantime, I am sure that in the picture below this trial plot by the Forestry Commission, I seem to remember had its fence removed a number of years ago and for sure it is growing well. It must be now 50 years old? It looks rediculous but it is mannah from heaven for the Lost Caledonian Forest Believers. But it has been commercially planted and maintained (sort of) to get it going, not a good example.
Moving on down the Glen we come to the edge of the Coulin Scots Pine, it is lovekly, whatever the weather. In fact it is stunning, every time I see it and I say, one day I will walk through this forest. I better be quick.
Interesting the forest here has not spread West by much, the ReWilkers/ReForesters would say, shoot the deer but I would suggest the wind whistling down this Glen and the soil conditions are as much of a problem as Red Deer. The trees are moving West but at a snails pace, not fast enough for the ReWilders, ‘Shoot the Deer’.
It is however, a source of wonder how these patches of Scots Pine survived, what was the common reason for that? Perhaps the Fellers just did not get there, remember there was a major Iron Works on Loch Maree just along the road, I found this in a wonderful book I bought many years ago but having returned to lately, the history is all there of these works in the late 1800s, fascinating.
The book I mentioned is “Gairloch and a Guide to Loch Maree” by J.H.Dixon, it has been re-printed and is readily available. I have an origfional copy with: G Butterworth 1889 written in ink inside the cover. Fascinating history of the area, there is much about Nature and the trees in it.
It was a quick drive through a favourite Glen on that Saturday. As I approached Kinlochewe, I looked across the river to the Scots Pine forest created by planting around the old Granny Pines, the even aged Scots Pine blocks did not do the old Grannies justice, will Nature Scot be sending in the woodcutters to re-space the blocks of even age to make it look like a ‘proper’ forest soon? I wonder. On the other side of the road the plantation that I helped remove the fence there years ago seems to be stuck, it looks no different to the days I worked there, but that is the thing. On poor soil, SP take forever to grow. Will that be fast enough for Nature Scot, I wonder.
But the whole point of this wee blog post is that the Torridon Glen is magical as it is, as nature intended and as nature progresses. Maybe in years to come trees will sprout and grow like weeds but at this moment in time it is what it is and the conservationists would do well to leave well alone.
isleofronalog 