Forestry Memories

Finished Douglas fir ‘pencils’ for Scrabster

Finished Douglas fir ‘pencils’ for Scrabster

Date Added: 18 September 2024 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1976 Picture No: 5950

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.

This image shows at least five possibly six mill sawn poles stacked at Munro Dingwall sawmill. Attempts to count the annual growth rings confirmed at least 40 rings in the heartwood and possibly 15 rings in the sapwood. If 10 years are added for growth from planting to point where logs were cut off a rough estimate could place the planting year to around 1910 then carried out by foresters on Guisachan Estate.

The destination and purpose of the special poles is not recorded but it is assumed that they could be destined for sail craft masts exported from Scrabster. One of the Nordic countries? Can anyone recall the event and destination of the poles?

Please see the attached PDF for a view of the round logs being processed on the bandsaw mill at Munro sawmills.

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Groups: Sawmills, pulp mills, chipboard mills

1 Comment

Whilst I was no longer working in Affric at the time these pictures were taken, five years later when I re-joined the FC as a Forester in Torrachilty, I heard that these poles were used as fenders in the re-furbishment of Scrabster harbour, rather than being exported as mast blanks to Scandanavia. However, that was hearsay and I never followed the comment up.

Good health, Bill Comment left on 19 September 2024 at 00:10 by Bill Rayner
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