Community urged to love and nurture new Oban woodland
A NEW woodland with more than 190,000 broad leaf trees has taken root on a hillside near Oban.
The woodland above Loch Nell on the Kilmore to Connel backroad was the idea of Glen Lonan landowner and lawyer Lupi Moll whose great grandfather Alexander MacKay planted Glencruitten’s Cathedral of Trees in the 1920s – Scotland’s only consecrated garden cathedral.
Keeping up the tradition as ‘The Family Who Planted Trees’, Mr Moll hopes the new Ballygowan woodland will be nurtured ‘like a baby’ and loved as it grows.
The hillside sits on the edge of a Golden Eagle range, Black Grouse are nearby and Merlin, Hen Harriers, White-tailed Eagles and Red-throated Divers have all been recorded in the surrounding area.
Mr Moll hopes the woodland, with some open ground left untouched, will encourage the return of raptors, other nesting birds and protected species including pine marten, red squirrel, otters and wildcats.
‘It’s like a newborn baby. It needs nurturing to live and to be loved. I’ve done this for the public but we need the public’s help to make it work. They are welcome to use the wood, but that also means showing it respect. Most importantly we want people to be proud of it,’ he said.
Pockets of a plant called Devil’s Bit Scabious have been kept to bring back the rare and protected Marsh Fritillary butterfly. Right now there are only rough tracks to walk on, some can hardly be seen, but eventually they will become paths with viewpoints, said Mr Moll.
‘In the years ahead we will formalise paths and viewpoints without spoiling the natural beauty,’ said Mr Moll.
The hillside had been heavily grazed for more than 70 years before the death of a tenant farmer and Mr Moll deciding to do his bit to re-forest a small part of Scotland.
There are now 74,000 birch, 65,000 oak, 19,000 wild cherry and 15,000 beech trees planted there along with thousands of rowan, willow and alder and hundreds of hazel, aspen, bird cherry and guelder rose.
It has taken months to carry out the work. The first part of the project to get the ground ready began in September last year. The planting started in December and finished at the end of February.
Deer fencing is up and specially-made caged stone styes are being put in place so people can get access.
Gates in have had to be padlocked because of being occasionally left open, letting deer in and putting the new trees at risk.
Lots of the trees, guarded with plastic to keep hungry voles away, have been mound planted so walkers exploring the area also need to wear sturdy footwear and watch out for holes about one foot deep where earth has been removed, said Mr Moll.
In the heart of the wood there is a hill-top circuit that follows a chain of large boulders to the impressive so-called Skull Stone. The woodland, which covers 95 hectares, is also near Lorn’s only stone circle and the 13ft Clach Na Caraig standing stone is just a few hundred metres away at Strontoiller.
A chambered cairn is also close by on Loch Nell’s southern shore and duns, hut circles and cup-marked stones dot the land around it.
Mr Moll said the project would not have been possible without financial support, adding: ‘This woodland contributes directly to the Scottish Government’s published targets for woodland creation. We are grateful for the direct support and assistance we have received from Forestry Commission Scotland and Scottish Water. Both agencies have described this woodland creation project as a case study in best practice.’
Local help also came from Taynuilt Trees, fencer Neil MacFadyen and ‘a dedicated squad’ of planters from P S Forestry Ltd.
‘No one can believe we have done this so quick but we have, with a lot of help. Our aim is to return this wee bit hill to what it might have looked like, plus adding a little beech, when Scotland was named Caledonia – ‘Wooded Heights’ – by the invading Romans.
‘We hope, in due course, that it will mirror some of the ancient woodlands that can be seen from the hilltop. This is our small contribution to the re-forestation of Scotland.’
The Forestry Commission has recognised it as the largest native broad leaf woodland to be planted in the Oban area in 2017.
It’s like a newborn baby. It needs nurturing to live and to be loved Lupi Moll Glen Lonan landowner and lawyer