The ancient forests of Darnaway
Mike Phillips, a former research head forester at Newton, published several papers during his career and in retirement. In the attached PDF Mike has researched all the literature, references and maps that he can find on the ancient pine and oak forests of Darnaway in Moray. He has used for reference records from the local archives, maps of Blaeus and Timothie Pont as well as extensive Darnaway estate records going back to 1767.
Mike writes -
‘The Great Hall of Darnaway Castle has a medieval roof of oak taken from Darnaway forest and recently it was found that it was constructed about 1387 (Stell and Baillie, 1987). Although some of the oak beams have been renewed much remains of the original oak construction.
The earliest references indicating a natural native forest of Darnawav refer to Duffus Castle stating that in the year 1305, a grant to Sir Reginald Cheyne of 200 oaks from the Royal Forest of Darnaway and Longmorn was made to build his manor at ‘Dufhous’ (Anon, 1986) indicating that a major building programme was underway at that time, and it may be that the wood was needed for flooring and other parts of the emerging stone castle (Anon, 1986). Also in the 13th century when the Comyns were keepers of Damaway Forest it was recorded that Edward I ordered Alexander Comyn to deliver 400 oaks to the Bishop of Caithness for the building of Dornoch Castle in 1291 (Morton. 1928).
The felling and transport of Darnaway oaks to Leith was a regular and systematic process, possibly for the construction of the Kings ships; other possible destinations were for the roofs of the great halls of Edinburgh and Stirling Castles (Stell and Baillie, 1987). There is unsupported evidence of oak timber from Darnaway being used in the roofing of St Magnus Cathedral in Orkney and also Spynie Palace in Moray (Chapman, 1997; Anon, 1881; Anon, 1986).
However, it is the great Randolph Hall of Darnaway Castle which has recently been the subject of very detailed study carried out by the Royal Commission for the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, while Mike Baillie of the Palaeoecology Centre, The Queens University Belfast, was invited by Moray Estates to carry out a dendrochronological analysis. This analysis of the oak timber shows that the trees used in the roof were felled after the 1387 growing season (Stell and Baillie, 1987)’.
The second part of the PDF covers the early references to the ‘great oak forest of Daraway’ including one which states that the forest extends to over 3000 acres in extent according to an 1881 report.
Groups: Forest Research, Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports
I can also confirm that Darnaway timber has previously been identified dendrochronologically at Spynie Palace and Stirling Castle (not in the Great Hall - but as re-used lintels in the Chapel Royal). However, contrary to speculations cited above, Edinburgh Castle's early 16th C Great Hall roof is built with Scandinavian timber, again identified through dendro-provenancing (Anne Crone's work). Dendrochronology can identify both when and where a timber was felled. Anne and I also sampled some Darnaway living oaks, some decades ago, in St Johns Mead, through the kind offices of Mike Phillips and the Moray Estates, but despite great girth in some cases, they only extend back to the 18th C, and have the fused multiple stem form of former coppice so were probably older oaks which were coppiced in the 18th C. Comment left on 14 July 2020 at 17:26 by Coralie Mills