Duncan made his mark - Initials carved into hilltop at Balloch Forest near Keith
The image shows an area of the unplanted top of Balloch Forest, Aberdeenshire circa 2015. The public walking tracks to the top of the hill are very visible and appear to have not long been upgraded or worked on when this image was saved.
Also noticeable is large DJ initials marked on the hill top plateau. In fact they appear twice the lesser of the two partially impacted by the walking track. It is believed that the 100m long initials were formed by the late Duncan Jamieson while he was ploughing the area (now felled) below his marks. John Thomson, former District Manager for Aberdeenshire and Moray Forest District, recalls his father Bert Thomson, Head Forester, saying that Duncan retired in the early 1980s and was ploughing in Balloch Forest on his last working days. The very neatly ploughed area just below the initials was almost certainly an example of pushing ‘forestry up the hill’ when former unplanted areas were reassessed and put under trees.
Duncan was a long term plough man and certainly working on tractors and trail ploughs from the early 1950s. The neatness of the plough furrows in the forestry area below lead to the view that this was the work of a trail plough. Duncan must have carefully worked out the structure of the letters and taken his outfit and ploughed a few furrows close together. This would not have been easy with a 15m long tractor and trailing plough but the top and bottom of the letter J and the curve of the letter D are exceptionally well executed. The heather vegetation seems to have reacted well to the cultivation and growing strongly even though it had been done perhaps 30 years previously!
In retirement even when approaching 90 years old he regularly drove the 12 miles from Insch, where he lived, to some of the Huntly care homes to visit friends and news with many of the residents. Duncan managed to leave his mark on the world!
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Tractors Ploughs and Drainage Machines