DARNAWAY FOREST. 7 



Gordon's estates and those of the Earl of Seafield ; but such 

 deep soil is largely wanting over this area in the valley of the 

 Findhorn occupied by Darnaway Forest. Only in the river 

 valley itself, along the courses of the bums and in the de- 

 pressions of the general surface of the ground here and there 

 do we find deep soil, and even here it is only of limited extent. 

 In these places the finest oaks grow. Similarly we notice the 

 soil reaches a greater depth as we pass northwards, and leaving 

 the forest area of Darnaway cross beyond it to the estate of 

 Brodie, and the flat tract lying to the northwards with an 

 elevation of only a few feet above the sea level — that fertile 

 area known formerly as the Granary of Moray. Here the fine 

 growth of hardwoods, and particularly of the ash, is very 

 noticeable. 



Conversion. — The doubt as to the wisdom of planting oak 

 in soil so poor occurred to the proprietor in 1765 and onwards, 

 as I have mentioned. Mr Scott expresses his doubts on the 

 .same subject in his Report, but he qualifies his remarks by 

 saying the proprietors, whilst planting conifers, should not 

 entirely denude themselves of hardwoods. 



The question before us is something as follows. In Mr 

 Scott's Report there are thirty or nearly thirty sections in the 

 forest of Darnaway of mixed hardwoods and conifers which 

 are unsatisfactory. We propose, with the concurrence of Mr 

 Matthew Feaks, the present head forester, to clean fell some 

 fifteen of these or so, in order, and to replant with conifers 

 {i.e. convert them into coniferous sections). This will occupy at 

 any rate fifteen years, and at the end of that time, with the 

 experience gained, and from other sources of information, the 

 proprietors should be able to decide as to the area on which 

 hardwoods should be retained and also planted. This I call 

 the Conversion process, for want of a better name. 



Darnaway Forest was visited by the Royal Scottish Arbori- 

 cultural Society, as recorded in their Transactions, in the year 

 1881. The writer in the report says, "As a matter of fact the 

 woods at Darnaway have been celebrated for generations, and 

 few estates of the country can boast of such an expanse of 

 splendid, full-grown timber. The oak forest at Darnaway is 

 acknowledged to be the finest in Scotland, and there are few 

 which could compare with it anywhere in the British Isles." 

 This paragraph is copied almost verbatim from Grigor's volume 



