Whitelees Forest - A step too far!
A slide found in Aberdeenshire District Office along with a few others on ploughing and draining in Whitelees Forest. The only annotation is 'B60 Bogged - Whitelees 1976'
Most likely a Bowen 60 ploughing tractor which was ploughing in a very soft, deep peat area in Whitelees Forest and got a bit too close to an unploughable area. At about this time I recollect machines being sent from the North of Scotland area (Lairg)to assist in the recovery of a tractor bogged in Whitelees but do not know the details.
Any information on this and other bogging adventures in Whitelees very welcome.
2 Comments
I have been carrying out the Whitelee Forest Oral History Project for the past 4 years and have oral information on draining and the bogging incidents. The results of the project will be released publicly soon, after a final meeting with contributors. Meanwhile, I will contact people whom I think will know more about your Whitelee Forest pictures. Yours sincerely, Ruth Tittensor
Comment left on 06 November 2007 at 16:33 by Ruth Tittensor
Comments by Brian Speirs who worked at Whitelee Forest for 33 years. 'The photographer is standing on Flow Moss, FC land formerly part of Craigendunton Farm, looking south-west. The steading of Craigendunton is off picture to the right and the March Fence between Craigendunton and Craigends Farm is again off picture but to the left and behind. The line of trees in the background is the March Fence between the farms of Tayburn and Meadowhead.
The land here was so wet that it was pre-drained every 50-100 yards, using a crawler machine, to get rid of some surface water before proper draining started.
When proper draining started, the crew were told to try and drain as much of Flow Moss as possible, despite the conditions. If the plough got stuck the tractor could not move on, the caterpillar tracks of the now motion-less tractor just spun round causing the 'grosser plates'(which normally provide the traction) to dig into the ground, breaking the surface mat of turf on top of the almost liquid peat. The vegetation was torn away and the tractor went straight down into the porridge-like peat. The machinery could not reverse itself out of difficulty.
Flow Moss is really flat and all the drains filled with water as soon as they were dug because it had no where to go. In one instance the sunken machinery needed four more tractors to pull it out! Brians Spears remembers fencing the plantation here. He put in a big corner post with a fair lean on it which would normally be taken up as the stay post settled into the ground when the tension was put on the fencing wires. However in this case following the tensioning of the wires the whole stay and stay post just went straight down into the peat!' Comment left on 17 December 2007 at 17:25 by Norman Davidson for Brian Speirs
The land here was so wet that it was pre-drained every 50-100 yards, using a crawler machine, to get rid of some surface water before proper draining started.
When proper draining started, the crew were told to try and drain as much of Flow Moss as possible, despite the conditions. If the plough got stuck the tractor could not move on, the caterpillar tracks of the now motion-less tractor just spun round causing the 'grosser plates'(which normally provide the traction) to dig into the ground, breaking the surface mat of turf on top of the almost liquid peat. The vegetation was torn away and the tractor went straight down into the porridge-like peat. The machinery could not reverse itself out of difficulty.
Flow Moss is really flat and all the drains filled with water as soon as they were dug because it had no where to go. In one instance the sunken machinery needed four more tractors to pull it out! Brians Spears remembers fencing the plantation here. He put in a big corner post with a fair lean on it which would normally be taken up as the stay post settled into the ground when the tension was put on the fencing wires. However in this case following the tensioning of the wires the whole stay and stay post just went straight down into the peat!' Comment left on 17 December 2007 at 17:25 by Norman Davidson for Brian Speirs
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