Measuring up special Douglas fir trees felled in Affric Forest

Date Added: 18 September 2024 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1976 Picture No: 5949

The photograph was taken by the late Finlay MacRae who was a District Officer in the Forestry Commission based in Dingwall at the time. The images are courtesy of his daughter Donna.

This is part of a series depicting the felling of some large Douglas fir trees in Affric Forest (Guisachan area) that were converted by Munro Sawmills (Dingwall) into special six sided poles for delivery to Scrabster.

Brian Stanger (Insch) who was based as a forester at Glen Affric some time after this event believes the forester doing the measurement booking could be Bill Burlton who later transferred to NE England. Can anyone confirm that this is Bill and also name the other person measuring?

The follow on two images in the PDF link below show the loading of the five poles onto a lorry. Again any information on the crane, lorry (RJS407L) and drivers would be very welcome. The next picture number features the logs in the mill and the finished mill product.

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Groups: Forestry Areas, Groups of people, Other Vehicles and Machines, Recreation Activities and Art in the Forest, Timber lorries and loaders

4 Comments

I would agree with Brian that this is Bill Burlton, Forester, "booking" the log's measurements and if my assumption from the first pictures pdf supplementary images is correct the person helping with the measuring could be Alan Cherry, pre Newton Rigg work experience.

I do not recognise any of the individuals in either of the attached pdf photographs. I suspect that they are either Munro Sawmill employees. However, the lorry from it's green and cream cab livery looks very much like a Fraser's lorry from Conon Bridge, with a flat bed trailer and temporary bolsters being used to keep the logs in place.

Good health, Bill Comment left on 19 September 2024 at 00:03 by Bill Rayner

Yes, definitely Bill Burlton. He was at Kielder when I was there in the early 90's. He was conservation forester at the time, someone to go to when I would come across the 'unexpected' (or maybe should have expected!) whilst doing pre harvesting site inspections. Comment left on 20 September 2024 at 20:23 by Iain Gale

Aye Iain, Bill Burlton is still there, retired, but still surveying the mires. Good health, Bill Comment left on 23 September 2024 at 16:37 by Bill Rayner

I was the driver of the Atkinson crane/recovery vehicle which belonged to Mackays Garage, Dingwall.
The Lorries did indeed belong to H D Fraser Cullicuden, a Mercedes and a Scammell Crusade. Comment left on 05 February 2025 at 12:44 by Charlie Mackay

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