Balblair Forest Planting Maps c1960
The maps are courtesy of North Highland Forest District, Golspie which were photographed by Norman Davidson.
This composite map shows three wooded areas located close to Bonar Bridge and Ardgay. One of the woods, Balblair, gives its name to the whole unit as would have once been administered in the 1950s to 1960s. The other wood is known locally as Carbisdale after the Castle in its midst while the third is called Viewfield.
It is interesting to note that the Compartment numbering starts at No1 in Carbisdale Wood (planted 1949) and the sequence carries on in Rhelonie Wood not in this map. This is likely to indicate that Carbisdale started off as a separate Forest Unit and at some point around 1965 was amalgamated with Balblair Wood, the whole unit being named Balblair Forest with Head Forester Housed in Fern House, Bonar Bridge and forester in Ardgay (initially Dairy Cottage and then the Dorran at Gledfield). The compartment numbering therefore is a bit chaotic but would have been sorted with new sets of maps produced in the 1970s following on from further amalgamations.
Balblair Wood has already been covered in previous Picture No 1899 but note the additional compartment No 28 in the south east corner.
Carbisdale Wood must again have been purchased as felled woodland following the war as the Ordnance Survey Map shows forest cover at time of its survey in the later 1800s. Note that Carbisdale Castle is not shown as it was not built at the time! The Compartments run from 1 to 26 planted in 1949 through to 1955 and further piece of land added and planted in 1960 as Compartments 47 and 48. The species choice is very similar to that in Balblair Wood with Scots pine being dominant but with many small areas of European and Japanese Larch, Sitka and Norway spruce, Douglas fir and sizeable areas Lodgepole pine (PC).
The third area is land around Viewfield House with compartments numbered from 58 – 66 and planted in 1962/63. Again Scots pine dominates but is used with European larch, Sitka and Norway spruce and increasing amounts of Lodgepole pine (PC), a likely indication of wetter ground with more peat and also more indications of intimately mixed species planting.
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.
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Groups: Caithness and Sutherland, Forestry Areas, Maps of Forest and Woodland Areas