Tree Planting in Strath Lunndaidh

It's some months since we last walked the track which leads from the eastern end of the Beinn Bhraggie forestry towards the ruins of the clachan of Lunndaidh at the far end of Loch Lunndaidh (see earlier posts here) but we set off in bright sunshine this morning only to find the first evidence of the changes that have happened over the summer, in the form of a new deer fence and gate.

Just short of the upper gate, the point where the forestry gives way to open moorland, the point where, suddenly, the views open up and the air seems fresh and clean, we found that the new parking area was occupied by bags of fertiliser and....

....saplings, most but not all of them deciduous - rowan, oak, hazel - but once through the fence....

....it was obvious that most of the planting that has happened over the summer was of conifers, all in neat rows and consisting of Norway spruce and Scots pine.

We knew that the whole area from the existing forestry to the loch was going to be planted but this has happened quickly, and the total area now planted as far as the loch is, at an estimate, about a square kilometre but, as we discovered later, it will in future continue well beyond the loch.

The planting method is simple enough. A digger scoops a hole and then the sapling is planted on top of the excavated pile, the planting done....

....by five young men who, they said, would take about six weeks to do the area. I asked whether they were aware of the hut circle below the track and the farmstead on the hill above it and was told that no planting would happen on them - and we checked the hut circle and were relieved to find a good space around it along with an access path. They also told us that only 10% of the planting would be mixed pine and deciduous trees, the minimum required.

As we reached Loch Lunndaidh it began to rain, a suitable comment on this development. The wide views from the track to the south, to Loch Fleet and beyond, and those uphill to the ridge that runs east from Beinn Bhraggie, will be lost as the conifers grow, as will all the open moorland at this end of Strath Lunndaidh.