Crathes Estate Red Moss Wood - 1953 Gale
Photograph courtesy of Forestry Commission, Moray and Aberdeenshire Forest District. A1570
Iconic photograph of a wood, possibly mature Scots pine, hit by hurricane force winds and flattened as though by a large roller from the northerly direction.
This aerial photograph may have been taken by Forest Research or Survey personnel pulled into help quantify the scale of the destruction by using photographs from aircraft.
How and why the S.W. edge remained standing is impossible to say. Grid reference is given as 740 015
Frank Oliver in his description of the gale states that overnight the forests of Scotland lost 50 million cubic feet (over 1.5 million tonnes) of standing timber the vast majority of it in Aberdeenshire (along with Kincardine and Morayshire). This majority of this blown timber was harvested over the next two years without major loss to rot and degrade. However many estates had an enormous gap in their future harvesting timber income, faced large costs in replanting the woodlands and in overcoming the ravages of insect pests whose numbers boomed towards and following the end of the two year period.
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Gale 1953, Northeast Scotland