Murdo Mackenzie, FC Horseman at Lael Forest
Photograph courtesy of Brian Fletcher, Conon Bridge.
Murdo Mackenzie is pictured dragging timber with quite a small looking Clydesdale or is Murdo large because he is nearer the camera or actually a large man! The photograph is thought to date from around the early 1970s.
Note the amount of trees being dragged downhill small end first by the horse. It was always a difficult to keep the trees in the drag chain when pulling point first. Chain had to be wrapped around each tree individually and it was helpful if the fellers had left the stumps of branches (sprogs) on the last foot or so. Apparently this horse was owned by Willie MacLennan.
The trees are likely to have been thinned out from the main crop and the hose was one of the few ways to take the felled thinning stems out before the advent of modern hydraulic, articulated machines or cable cranes.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Horses at work in Forests