Loch Sunart and Strontian Forest areas – Sunart Forest - Strontian forest District
The map was recovered from shed at Newton that acted as a storage area for Forest Research who used the maps to locate forest and tree experiments in the field.
The western three areas were part of the original Sunart Forest acquisition in 1951 from the Board of Agriculture Scotland. Creating employment opportunities through forestry was a high priority at this time. This acquisition may also have been facilitated by the Board wishing to divest itself of the often rough terrain areas covered with oak and birch tree growth where the grazing sheep would find cover and avoid shepherding actions. The provision of fences and planting would ease the problem and also provide areas of shelter where flocks were easily visible. Not appreciated at the time - these areas contained well populated Atlantic oak woodland communities and much effort was direct by the early foresters to clear the ‘scrub’ oak, birch and ash and replant with various conifers. Fortunately not all the ‘scrub’ trees were cleared or ring barked and in later years formed part of the Sunart Oak Woodland restoration project.
The most western area on this map (Comp 205-208) was named as Bunalteachan after the little croft house on the edge of the sea where forest worker David Sutherland lived. The house was the former home of ‘North Argyll’ a long term correspondent in the Oban Times newspaper and local historian. This little wood had the distinction of some large older Scots pine growing on the edges but the writer is uncertain of their origin. Planting here was carried out in 1963.
The area further east opposite Garbh Eilean (Comp 2002-204) was planted in the period 1956-1958 and is currently the location of a short forest walk, car park and visitor hide looking out over Loch Sunart and the nearby islands. Further east again the Camaschoirck area (Comp 205-208) was planted 1954 to 1955 and as in the previous area held a substantial amount of oak and native broadleaves prior to conifer planting. Quite a number survived to the present day and the conifers were felled out in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Moving onto the Strontian village area, Longrigg (Compartment 209) was planted in 1972 after its acquisition from Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Scotland (DAFS) in 1970. The small area of mixed woodland (Compartment 210) acquired in 1987 from DAFS was developed as a village picnic site and walking area by the then Strontian District Forest Manager - Bill Hunter.
Any more information and accounts would be very welcome.
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Groups: Maps of Forest and Woodland Areas, Sunart Ardgour and Morven