Cairnbaan Camp Argyllshire � Forestry Commission phase � Buildings

Date Added: 14 April 2020 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1963 Picture No: 4619

The images are sourced with help from Janet Quarton (a one time resident in the camp during its forestry phase) and also other contributors.

This is the 1946 aerial photograph on to which Janet has over laid with details of the building functions during it early Forestry Commission phase. The time period is noted as 1963 and the reader can immediately see the office and workers’ house locations in the camp. Note that the building labelled as the hostel (buildings 14 and A) once served as the District Officer’s family house.

Janet adds:

“When we moved here in 1962 those two huts (14 and A) were combined as one house and a District Officer stayed in it previously. Huts 1,2,6,7 were each turned into two houses. We stayed in hut 2, left from behind (House No 8). Huts 11 & 10 were the forest and district office. Hut 15 was demolished, 16 was the hall, hut 17 as a joiners shop and huts 19, J, 21 the mechanical engineering workshops”.
They may also have had hut 20 but can anyone say?

Huts 12, 13 were taken over by the roads department and hut 3 was used as a vehicle garage. Less is remembered about the huts 4, 5, 8 and 9 but see the details below. Huts H and G may have been used as stores as indeed Hut E. Hut F was small house occupied at one time by the Kiel family.

Can anyone say what use was made of building No 18? Part of joiners’ domain?

The jail probably was used in its POW phase. It had two cells with bars on the windows. The area termed ‘Helicopter’ was used as a football and playing field by the residents’ children in the 1960s.

Wilsons of Troon owned the sawmill and occupied the site where hut 15 and Nissen huts M had been located. Their stacked timber extended well up towards the ‘jail’ and helicopter pad.

Below are the accommodation hut numbers as per photo (some huts was divided into two houses) used as worker and family accommodation with house numbers as listed below:

Hut No 1 – Houses No 7 and 8
Hut No 2 – Houses No 9 and 10
Hut No 4 – may not have been divided – May have been house No 13
Hut No 5 - may not have been divided – May have been house No 14
Hut No 6 - Houses No 3 and 4
Hut No 7 – Houses No 5 and 6
Hut No 8 - May not have been divided – May have been house No 11
Hut No 9 - may not have been divided – May have been house No 12
Huts 14A – District Officers House – House No 1 or 2 Called Camphill?

Can anyone recall these house numbers? Please see the Record No 4620 for some details of people who worked and lived at the camp.

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Groups: Buildings in Forests, Forestry Areas

7 Comments

I stayed in house number 6 (hut 7) from easter 1964 until the house were demolished in the early 70's. Letterdaill then came into being. I stayed at no 1 letterdaill. My mum still lived there until her death in 2006. Comment left on 14 April 2020 at 19:11 by Angela Cumming

Add onto previous comment re No 6 Cairnbaan camp. Our family name was Smith. Dad Jim mum Mary, children Vincent, Angela and Edith. Dad was in the road squad but died very young in 1967 he was 42. We previously stayed in Nursery Cotts, Ford and before that 8a Dalavich - all FC houses. Mum and dad moved up from Glasgow to Dalavich in 1956. Comment left on 14 April 2020 at 20:16 by Angela Cumming

From what I can remember hut 20 was part of the mechanical engineering workshops and 21 was used to park vehicles under cover. Huts 4 and 5 had been demolished when we moved in 1964. Hut 8 was used as a store for old furniture. Hut F was another store hut and the Kiels lived in a house built on the land next to hut F. Hut 18 I think was turned in to a blacksmiths work shop.
Hut number 9 was divided into 2 homes. Comment left on 21 April 2020 at 20:13 by Vince Smith

I must have been Angela's previous resident at number 6 in hut 7. We lived there from 1949 until 1963. The place marked as Helicopter was originally a Tennis Court, I remember celebrating the Queen's Coronation on it. The local Gamekeeper used to keep his Ferrets in the Jail. Hut 3 had the Kitchen left from the POW days, but was cleared out to allow residents to park their cars, although rarely used. Comment left on 22 April 2021 at 20:50 by Ian Stark

Hi ian, I've actually got the old rent property record. W Stark let dates = 28/6/1949 to 06/11/1963 then P Connor 7/11/1963 to 28/2/1964 then we Smiths moved in 28/02/1964 house demolished 18/09/1972. Angela Cumming (Smith) Comment left on 22 April 2021 at 21:24 by Angela Cumming

I was born in the camp in 1952 when we lived in 1 or 2, at least that area. We left for Aberfoyle in about 1953, returning in 1958/9 to live in Camphill (I had forgotten the name until I saw it here) number 14 and A. My dad John Gwynn was the DO referred to. We moved over the canal to the Ross's old house Shelbourne Lodge in about 1960/1. I remember playing in the old jail and walking to school, where my mum would teach, on occasions, when Mrs Boyd was ill. I also remember helping the blacksmith who worked at the back of the joiner's shop. The heli pad was a tennis court when I was there not that I recollect anyone playing tennis. A helicopter at Cairnbaan, definitely gone up market. Comment left on 08 January 2023 at 11:07 by Roger Gwynn

I knew wee Edith & her mum when I lived nearby 1978-82. I worked for Crerar’s the architects, mostly housing for M&K Macleod. A pal let me know Murdo Macleod died but his twin Kenny’s still there with Murdo’s widow Jane. I moved to Newcastle in 1985 & have lived in Inverness since 2008. Now retired & 70. Decades since I was at Cairnbaan. Comment left on 27 April 2024 at 19:06 by Seoras Macdonald

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