Wooded area gets renamed by Crieff residents

A community-owned woodland in Crieff has been renamed following feedback from locals.

Crieff Community Trust (CCT) has revealed Acorn Dell will now formally be known as‘Turretbank Wood’.

CCT gauged the opinions of its members and local residents during a two-and-a-half week period in October and November.

The survey invited locals to give their views on whether the community-owned woodland on the west bank of the Turret Burn should be renamed.

The document made it clear that there was no plan to rename the path which runs along the river, known locally as part of the historic Lady Mary’sWalk.

The survey was prompted by repeated comments over many years from some people in Crieff who said that they disliked the name‘Acorn Dell’, particularly as they felt it didn’t sound like a local place name.

Respondents were asked if they thought the name should change; whether they would prefer one of three alternative names — Oakbank Wood, Turretbank Wood or Crieff Community Woodland — and whether they wanted‘Community Woodland’to be part of the name.

The survey received 146 responses. Of these, 99 thought the name‘Acorn Dell’should be changed.

Only 17 respondents thought the name should remain the same, while the remaining 30 said they had no strong opinion on the matter.

The second question asked people whether they would prefer one of three alternative names to Acorn Dell.

In relation to the alternative names, even those who opted to reject the option of a name change were shown the trio of new possibilities and were invited to air their views.

Seven of the 17 respondents who said they did not want the name to change nevertheless selected one of the three alternatives, rather than skipping the question.

In addition, among the 30 respondents who said they had“no strong opinion”about whether the name‘Acorn Dell’should be changed, 29 out of 30 people also selected one of the alternative names.

Altogether, 123 survey respondents selected one of the three options, with 66 indicating a preference for‘Turretbank Wood’.

‘Oakbank Wood’was chosen by slightly less than a third and‘Crieff Community Woodland’was chosen by less than a fifth.

A total of 115 people answered the question which asked if they would like the phrase‘Community Woodland’to be included in any new name for what was formally known as ‘Acorn Dell’.

In total, 60 people thought that the official name should not include a mention of‘Community Woodland’.

A CCT spokesperson said:“While we recognise that this [146] is not a large response, it is our view that if people did not participate in the survey having been given the opportunity and a reminder the issue is probably not one which they have strong views about.”