Hammering chain spike of Timber Raft — Locha
The photograph is courtesy of the family of George Dey. George took many forestry photographs in his forestry career and some are now shown on this web site.
This image is though to date from 1956 and is one of a series showing timber rafting across Lochawe. Here the log raft is being assembled from timber dragged down from the forest, the separate logs are held together by a long chain run through a series of pins hammered into each log and once assembled the raft is then dragged across the loch to the other side for extraction up to one assumes a lorry loading point.
The attached PDF shows much of the towing operation. Can anyone confirm if that is Dalavich Village in the distant background of the last image in the PDF?
Timber markets and direction of travel changed considerably with the establishment of the pulp mill in Fort William during the mid 60s.
Can anyone name the man and confirm if the boat is the ‘Coileach’?
Any information on where the logs were going would be very welcome.
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