Forestry Commissioner’s tour of West Scotland Conservancy May 1973
These documents were passed on from the family of Tom A Robbie who was the Forestry Training School principal at Glentress 1947-1953 and also at Faskally 1953-1955 and thereafter in Conservancy appointments in Scotland. The items were brought to the attention of Forestry Memories by Mairi McGeachy, Business Support Manager, Aberfoyle Office.
The main programme as shown on the cover was a formal opening of the Strathyre Forest Cabins, a visit to Loch Ard Forest and to the Isle of Arran (Glenrickard Forest). However the actual itinerary included the drive through Queen Elizabeth Forest Park with a stop at the David Marshall Lodge.
In the early 1970s the Forestry Commission shifted focus onto what was termed ‘forest recreation’ when there was a progressive increase in resources directed at encouraging people to use forests for walking and other quiet leisure pursuits. Many car parking places, forest walks, picnic sites, camping sites, information panels and way marked routes were constructed in almost every region in the country over the next decade.
The Conservancy senior staff are named as:
D A Mithen – Conservator
J Wharam – Admin and Finance Officer
T A Robbie – Assistant Conservator
A Morrison – Assistant Conservator
N M Brown - Assistant Conservator
W A Johnston – Conservancy Land Agent
J V Dishington – Conservancy Civil Engineer
W L Low – Conservancy Mechanical Engineer
The leaflet provides a description of and the main programme and forest land holding statistics for the Conservancy which at the time employed 155 non-industrial and 620 industrial staff.
The Commissioners stopped off at David Marshall Lodge (109,000 visitors 1972 season) before proceeding to the Strathyre Forest Cabins site where they were formally opened by the Chairman (name not stated but presumed to be Lord Taylor of Gryfe). The site works for the forest cabins started in 1972 by the Forestry Commission civil engineering team and the 12 cabins (each accommodating five people) were built by a local building contractor. Interestingly the logs used were Japanese larch harvested from Drummond Hill Forest.
The last part of the first day was a visit to Loch Ard Forest and some of the areas planted in 1929 devastated by the 1968 gale now replanted. The group are look over at some of the magnificent views that attract the forest recreational users including many pony trekkers. The forester staff at this time are named as:
H G Law – Chief Forester
J HM Lyon – Forester
J M Craig – Forester
D Main – Forester
In nearby Archray Forest the forester staff are named as:
D A Robertson – Chief Forster
B S Thomson – Head Forester
J Baird – Forester
And at Strathyre Forest as:
D A MacCaskill – Chief Forester
S G Maule – Head Forester
A K Smith - Forester
The following day the party visited the Island of Arran and Glenrickard Forest where the staff are:
I F MacIver – District officer
L O Proudfoot – head Forester
K Robertson – Forester
M J Day – Forester
And a labour force of 9 people.
The tour leaflet provides details of areas and species and also mentions the arrangements with the National Trust for Scotland. There is a description of forest landscaping prescriptions on new planted areas in the Goatfell locality where the services of Sylvia Crowe were called upon in May 1967 to ‘preserve the amenity of the area’. The party viewed the results.
The full tour information leaflet is available in the PDF access via the link below.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports