Ardgour oak honoured to mark Queen’s jubilee
An oak tree on Ardgour has been named one of 70 trees across the UK to qualify for the Queen’s Green Canopy project.
The Camusnagaul pollarded oak is the only entry from a crofting community woodland, with all the other ancient trees from Scotland being on large estates or in the grounds of mansions and castles.
The Queen’s Green Canopy project is a unique tree planting initiative created to mark this year’s Platinum Jubilee. The 70 ancient trees identified are to be part of a special project to grow new trees.
The pollarded oak, aged about 350 years, is a rare survivor from the past and grows in the ancient woodlands of Camusnagaul and Achaphubuil, on Ardgour.
These woodlands were bought by a group of crofters from the crofting townships of Treslaig and Achaphubuil in 1995 from the Forestry Commission, with sponsorship from what was then Scottish Natural Heritage.
At the time of the woodland purchase, the new owners famously celebrated with a dram as the deal was completed, as the great aunt of one of their number had been once fined for collecting firewood from the woodlands.
Three local crofters – Ewen Morrison, Tony Boyd and Michael Foxley – have also extended the network of paths by two kilometres over the winter of 2020/21.
The woodland was judged Highly Commended, coming second in the important community section of last year’s Scotland’s Finest Woods Awards 2021.
Dr Foxley told the Lochaber Times this week: ‘Our pollarded oak has been at the centre of historical events in Lochaber throughout its life, as detailed in the story we submitted to the QGC judges.’
The story lists the many important historical events which have taken place in Lochaber during more than three centuries of the Camusnagaul pollarded oak’s life.
Standing in a woodland managed for centuries by the MacLeans of Ardgour, it now boasts a girth of four metres and was originally pollarded in order that bark from its branches could be used to cure animal hides and the wood burnt to make charcoal. The charcoal went by sea to fuel the iron furnaces at Bonawe – including making the cannon balls used at Trafalgar.
▎ For the full story of this incredible oak tree, visit www. lochabertimes.co.uk