Loch Ossian Plantations — Corrour 1929
An essay in afforesting high moorland
This limited edition booklet was scanned by Andy Kennedy, Site Surveyor, Forest Research from Forest Enterprise Head Office Library and passed to Bill Rayner, Tibbermore, who ‘cleaned’ the scan via an OCR programme.
The family of Sir John Stirling Maxwell have very kindly agreed to allow the book to be scanned and incorporated into the Forestry Memories website.
This little booklet written by John Stirling Maxwell of Corrour and Pollock Estates is unassuming in proportions and tone but vividly describes in detail some of the most far reaching and important early forestry plantation work and trials in Scotland. Note worthy is his early use of the turf and Belgian turf planting systems and it variations plus various types of fertiliser.
The plantations around Loch Ossian, sited on poor and very poor soils at an elevation of between 1200 and 1680 feet, were initiated in the 1890s and progressed steadily up to the time of the book publication in 1929. In those early days they must have been a treasure trove for the early forestry pioneers evaluating the prospects of establishing large scale forests on the higher elevation and low nutrient soils and peats of Scotland. It can now be easily envisaged how the experimental work at the Lon Mor (Fort Augustus) was initially guided by the work previously carried out at Corrour.
The range of species tried, is if nothing, quite remarkable (over 70 species of conifer plus a wide range of broadleaves) but of critical importance was the work carried out and lessons learned on draining, fertilising and planting methods including the seminal work, fully described, on use of various types of turfs and mounds in establishment.
Tributes are paid to staff who worked on or assisted with the projects including:
John Boyd - Forester at Pollock (to Inverliever Crown Forest 1905)
Simon Cameron – Forester from 1905
Alastair Cameron - son of Simon - Forester trainee
Duncan Robertson – Head Stalker
Duncan Ferguson – previous Head Stalker
Mary Sutherland – with team of girl foresters (First lady with forestry degree - Bangor c1914)
Family members associated with the forestry work appear to be noted as initials in the text and are likely to or could be the following persons:
JSM – John Stirling Maxwell
CSM – maybe his wife Christian Stirling Maxwell – Name was Ann Christian but may have used her second forename?
ASM – may be his daughter Anne Stirling Maxwell
AS – May be his younger brother Archibald Stirling of Keir House
It is interesting also to note the forester link with Inverliever Forest, the first government forest in Scotland, prior to the formation of the Forestry Commission in 1919 around 14 years later.
It is astonishing how at this early stage John Stirling Maxwell has homed in on the value of Sitka spruce and particularly those from more northern areas of British Columbia in the Queen Charlotte Islands: the value of Lodgepole pine with the observation that the Washington and Oregon varieties grew but would not stand, the southern inland varieties would initially grow but faded away with exposure but was convinced that those from the same latitude as Queen Charlotte Islands would be of real benefit – North Coastal and Skeena!
Summary – a most remarkable book or Essay describing 40 years of keenly observed work and trials on establishment of forests at high elevation on sometimes desperately poor soils which pointed the way to a select few species of real potential in Scotland’s uplands and ground treatments that showed real value in even the poorest quality peats.
Groups: Forest Research, Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports