Ploughing at Eynort, Glen Brittle Forest, Skye
The photograph is courtesy of the family of George Dey. George took many forestry photographs in his forestry career and many are now shown on this web site. Check under ‘Groups’ and George Dey Collection.
Ploughing with a Caterpillar D4 and double furrow plough on peat ground high above Eynort. Here Jocky Banks the tractor driver is standing beside his machine. He was one of a group of tractor drivers from various locations in Highland Region who operated a fleet of ploughing tractors that travelled from forest to forest around the region. Jocky’s home station was Ardgay if remembered correctly.
At one time whilst they were on the job they lived in forest bothies or old square box like forestry caravans with coal stoves but many later either bought their own caravans or chose to stay in digs in the localities - if there were any available of course. It was quite a lonely job and not much of a family life at they only returned home on a Friday night and often had to leave home on Sunday night to be sure to be able available for starting time on Monday morning. It was of course an extra night’s subsistence as well!
There was always animated discussions on subsistence payments as one nights subsistence was significantly more that a day’s pay to cover all the expenses of lodging, travel and food. The regulations for payment were fairly complex to cater for all the variations but the first 30 days (including the weekends) was paid at a much higher rate than the days following the first 30 by a factor or four or five. A shift to a new forest resulted in going onto the high rate again for 30 days as did an absence of a long period from a forest because of extended breakdown of the tractor or very snowy weather which made it impossible to work.
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, George Dey Forestry Collection, Tractors Ploughs and Drainage Machines