Craigs Forest Maps
Photographs by Norman Davidson from maps courtesy of North Highland Forest District, Golspie.
Craigs Forest set in Strathcarron valley behind Ardgay appears to have started its first planted in 1952 in compartment 1 (Renumbered 501 following amalgamation) in what they called the Stathcarron blocks. The numbers run consecutively from 1-49 and P52-P57on these three Woods and then Compartments 50-63 and 66-72 follow on in Strath Cuilaionach (P57-P61). The Compartment numbers 64-66 appear back at Invercharron Hill (P58and P59) and get tied in with some later edition Balblair Forest maps pointing to amalgamation of these forests around this era.
The third block to the west and further up Strathcarron was known as Braelangwell after the locality. The main species in the three blocks is Scots pine which reflects the dryer free draining soils but a surprising variety of other species have been fitted in odd pockets here and there. These include Sitka and Norway spruce, Lodgepole and Mountain pine, European, Japanese and Hybrid larch, Noble fir, Western hemlock (Tsg) and Beech. Click on the PDF to see all areas.
The fourth forest area Strath Cuilionach is a substantial distance up Strathcarron and then if one follows the public road up past the historical Croich Church and thereafter forest roads up Strath Cuileannach it can eventually be reached. At one time it was a lone forest set among sheep grazing estates but new pinewood and other forest schemes now fill much of this glen.
As usual with a national organisation there was a code and procedure convention for mapping of plantations some of which survive in the FC to this day. Acquisition boundaries were edged with a yellow ink (in this case green was used); compartment boundaries (rides) drawn in red ink; the extent of the planting in any year was given a light colour wash, outlined in green ink and the planting year written in green eg P.66; the compartment’s serial number and area in acres was written within the compartment sometimes within a small circle; the areas where different tree species were planted within each compartment were annotated with a species code eg SS (Sitka spruce), LP (Lodgepole pine) etc; different species areas in each compartment had to be separated by a dotted black line; internal fences, streams and other land usually indicated by a solid black line. Map scale was usually 6 inches to the mile.
Note that the annual reporting year and the planting year coincided at this time in that they ran from 1st Oct to 30th Sep. This avoided having an artificial split in the totals for the planting season which ran from November through to May. The Planting Year (PY or just P) was fixed as the first summer following planting and thus trees planted in Nov 55 and May 56 were both annotated P56.
Any information on people who worked in this forest would be very welcome.