Shin Forest — Shinness and Dalchork areas
Maps courtesy of North Highland Forest District, Golspie and photographed by Norman Davidson.
The Shin Forest planting land subsequently extended northwards from Lairg into what was at one time the large 10,000ha Dalchork Farm acquired by the Forestry Commission in 1958. This acquisition did not however extend to the West side of the River Tirry into what was the Shinness crofter’s grazings. Here there were some minor acquisitions or leases of planting land as an aid to provide shelter for the Shinness grazing stock. Dalchork Farm continued to be managed by the Department of Agriculture or a farm manager but a portion of the southern section just south of the Dalnessie Lodge Road was approved for new forestry planting as was an area around Cnoc Olasdail and a number of small shelter type blocks along the public road up as far as the Crask.
As all land had first call for stock rearing and crop growing the areas would have been considered and approved for tree planting by the Dept of Agriculture as in all cases of new planting in this era. The Compartment numbering continues from Ferry Wood with No126 at Cnoc Olasdail in P59. There after the Planting Years (P59- 68) and compartment numbers 126- 291 are in different areas according to where the planting was carried out in the various blocks and woods. They do not run consecutively in any one area but generally follow the planting years whether this was done in the Shinness blocks, South Dalchork Forest or the Sallachy areas west of Loch Shin. In the 1966 to 1968 new planting year’s data, the compartment numbering is sometimes missing as are the planting years.
The tree species that predominates in the various blocks is definitely Lodgepole pine and most likely, unfortunately, the poorly shaped South Coastal variety, which in often pure but also mixed with Scots pine and Sitka spruce in a few localities. On Cnoc Olasdail Alaskan Lodgepole pine was planted and some in mixture with Sitka spruce which seemed to grow well and was the forerunner of mixed species planting in later years on these wet peaty and exposed planting sites. In later years also, forestry took over from the sheep in a large area of Dalchork and an extensive forest was created that joined up many of these early planted blocks east of the River Tirry.
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