Ruination in the woods: the story of Scotland's 'ultimate clearances'

“They are the last chapter of the clearance history of many parts of the Highlands in areas where these forests were established, the last nail in the coffin.”

Prof MacMillan first stumbled upon one of these puzzling ruins when he was wandering through forest near Aberfoyle following a climb up Loch Lomond.  “It was pretty much in good condition,” he recalled, “and it made me realise that before the trees were there, there were people, farming.”

Since then, he said, he has noticed ruins often and developed an interest in trying to identify where, and how many of these buildings there are on state forestry land, as well as uncovering some of the human stories attached. Now, he and researcher Euan Stevenson have published a short paper, titled 'Ruination on the National Forest Estate 1920-2019'.

“Some of the buildings are enigmatic,” he described. “It’s a very atmospheric thing to see a ruin like that in a dark Sitka spruce plantation. They make you think of Hansel and Gretel, dark and forbidding, but these are places where the light would once have shone and there would have been children running around."

The authors argue that during this period “the Forestry Commission apparently pursued an active programme of ruination, involving the abandonment or deliberate destruction of hundreds of residential properties on land acquired by the state for afforestation.”

The state entity under which this happened effectively no longer exists. When this ruination occurred, Scotland’s forests were under UK Government management via The Forestry Commission. This body had been established in 1919 to create state-owned woods and forests, and promote and develop forestry across Britain to address severe timber shortages following the First World War and increase British woodland cover.

These forests came under Scottish Government control in 2003, when Forest Enterprise Scotland was created. Later, in 2019 Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) took over that role.

Prof MacMillan and his researchers have mapped the locations of the properties they believe were ruined over the century studied. Only 121 of the 208 derelict or ruined properties, they note, appear on the Historic Environment Scotland Canmore database and none on the FLS website of heritage destinations. Only 25 were listed in a freedom of information response to FLS in 2016 concerning ruined properties on their land.

“There is," said Prof MacMillan,  "virtually no record of these properties and what happened to them and the fact that they were either deliberately ruined - the roofs were taken down or they were demolished - or in some way made uninhabitable.

“It’s almost like a secret history here, a hidden history, hidden by trees and metaphorically hidden by the lack of attention given to them.”

This ruination and disappearance of people from forest land has been, he said, a kind of clearance. “These are homes that weren’t cleared during the clearances. And they are more common in areas, like Galloway and the North East, that weren’t so dramatically impacted by the agricultural clearances.”

The buildings, Prof MacMillan observed, were “perfectly good homes”. “I’ve walked,” he said, “round a few of them and they’ve still got artefacts there, like kettles, proper windows, chimneys.”

On a number of occasions, the researchers were able to find identical houses, within a mile or so of each other, one acquired by The Forestry Commission and the other not; one ruined and one in good condition.

“The house that was in The Forestry Commission land would be in ruins. The other one was a thriving small farm, looked after and renovated, a lovely place. Both from the same era, both in the same locality, with the same social and economic context.”

“These also,” he observed, “weren’t pre-clearance settlements. These were stone-built, 19th-century farms. You’re talking about a fairly modern agricultural system that has been cleared, not a traditional Highland system.”

A ruin at Saughs croft, Huntly (Image: Euan Stevenson)

“The really damning thing about it all is that with most of these properties the people left or were removed within a couple of years of the land being acquired by the Forestry Commission. We know these properties were actively being used as farms and so on immediately prior to acquisition. They didn’t inherit these sites as ruins. They ruined them either by neglect or by deliberate destruction. That was one of our criteria.

“Many of these were generational houses, there for hundreds of years as a settlement, with families, and sometimes multiple dwellings in the same site. You’re talking about small communities that have simply been forgotten in many of these forest areas." 

This, he said, represents a loss of cultural heritage. Much of the history of these buildings is lost in official records, but by scouring the internet and looking into local history, the researchers did unveil some more detailed stories.

The paper describes, for instance, the case of Aros House on Mull, where, it says, “the ruination process was perhaps taken to the ultimate extreme”. Built in 1825, and owned for some time by Bryce Allan of the Allan shipping line, the house and surrounding estate were acquired in 1959 by The Forestry Commission, and, the paper says, “demolition, using explosives, was undertaken by the British Army as a training exercise in 1962.”

One of the houses also has a personal link for Prof MacMillan: Achnababan Steading and House in Glen Urquhart, a property on Forestry Commission land that was ruined in the 1950s, but had been a sizeable community back in the 19th Century, with up to four households according to the census. “This,” he said, “is where my grandfather was born and was the family home of the MacMillans since at least the late 17th Century. I tried to purchase it around 20 years ago with plans to rebuild and restore it as a small holding/forest croft but this was rejected, despite significant local support from the people of the Glen.”

The ruins of Achnabachan Steading (Image: Douglas MacMillan)

But was all this ruination a deliberate policy? Prof MacMillan has come across no written evidence to demonstrate this. His paper states: “We have been unable to locate any document or study about it and it receives no mention in what are otherwise detailed and authoritative accounts of land acquisition and afforestation by FLS during these years.”

However, the professor recalled, there is anecdotal evidence. “When I was a forestry student, we would go round forests and the foresters at that time were the people responsible for planting the forests originally. I remember them telling me, ‘We don’t have anyone living there because we don’t want people in the forest, because they interfere with forest operations.’”

He also heard stories from people who had once lived in the houses. “I spoke to a lady who had been born in one of them a couple of years after it had been taken over, and she told me that they had to leave when the tenancy was up, then within a year the roof was off that property.”

The removal of roofs, he noted, was a recognised means "of avoiding business rates.”

The authors attribute this depeopling to a Germanic forestry approach that was adopted in the UK by the Forestry Commission.

The result, said Prof MacMillan is that people have not been integrated into forests. “They didn’t want people living there.  The pre-existing landscape that was acquired for forestry was completely bulldozed or removed by just wall-to-wall planting. There are some ruins where planting was that packed, we found trees planted within the walls of the house.”

Prof MacMillan observed that this pattern was most extreme in the early decades studied – and that the Forestry Commission became “better later”.

But has the approach to people and buildings been eliminated under Forestry and Land Scotland?

A Forestry and Land Scotland spokesperson said: “As an industry, forestry has come a long way since the early days. Forestry and Land Scotland manages 9% of Scotland, and all land is managed sustainably and balances economic, social and environmental requirements. Nowadays, robust land management planning and pre-harvesting checks help to safeguard the natural, historical and built environments during timber harvesting and extraction, renewable energy infrastructure, or road-building operations.

“All of our land management is carried out to the standards and requirements of the UK Forestry Standard – the UK’s reference standard for managing forests sustainably. FLS Land Management Plans are approved by Scottish Forestry, the Scottish Government’s agency responsible for forestry policy, support and regulations." 

In their paper, Prof MacMillan and Mr Stevenson make various calls on FLS regarding these ruins, saying that the body should “undertake to protect and record these important historical remains in their care.”

This the paper says, would include an inventory – “a full survey” of ruined properties on FLS land. They would also like to see all ruins and their surrounding lands “protected from further damage by timber harvesting and extraction, renewable energy infrastructure, or road-building operations”.

And the authors call for restoration, noting that several of the properties have already been restored as mountain bothies, and there could be opportunities for community asset transfer.

Achnabachan House in Glen Urquhart (Image: Douglas MacMillan)

An FLS spokesperson said: “We work in close collaboration with partner organisations including Historic Environment Scotland and local community groups and trusts to protect, conserve and present appropriate and significant heritage features for the enjoyment and benefit of current and future generations.

“FLS will always consider the historic environment within our land management planning, but we will need to make choices about the heritage features we invest in and maintain for the future.

“When we acquire land today, our approach is to deliver the maximum environmental, biodiversity and community benefits that these assets can deliver. As part of all FLS land management plans, we seek the views from local people and communities. This helps to balance and prioritise objectives for everyone. Current consultations are accessed through our website and are open for public input.”

Does this mean the era of state forestry ruination is now ended? One factor that reduces their likelihood is that the UK state long ago slowed its buying of land.  Forestry Commission acquisitions began to trail off in the 1970s. However, two years ago FLS did purchase Glenprosen, an estate in the Angus Glens, for £17.6 million.

For Prof MacMillan, this will be a test of how things have changed. Recent reports, he noted, had suggested there had already been a new clearance of the land, with staff gone, and homes emptied.

However, a Forestry and Land Scotland spokesperson said: “FLS did not terminate anyone’s employment or ask anyone to move off the land through the purchase of Glenprosen Estate.

“Prior to the sale, the previous owner terminated employment of on-site staff. FLS offered tenancies, and a contract opportunity to an existing staff member.

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“We are pursuing promising opportunities with the wider community and businesses to create new jobs, exciting partnerships, and providing an income for FLS by putting the estate buildings to sustainable use. Further to our request for expressions of interest last year, we are currently considering proposals for a tree nursery, an education offer, a manufacturing business, a recreation proposition, a field studies centre and residential use. Two of the estate houses are currently occupied by tenants.

“We will continue to work with our neighbours and partners to support woodland creation, habitat restoration, develop educational opportunities and create economic benefits for local communities.”

This is clearly progress. But is it enough? And what about the rest of Scotland's state forest?   Prof MacMillan would like to see further change in Scotland's approach to people living within forestry. “FLS should actually be encouraging people to live in forests. We should change our entire policy, and encourage green forest crofts for example. We should try to bring life back into forestry and humans back into forestry. That’s the big question. How does the forestry industry start accommodating people? Why are forestry not encouraging people to live in forests?”

“If you look at Scandinavia with all the wood cabins, it’s so different – and of course they had meaningful land reform which allowed these things to happen. Scandinavians feel they belong in the forest. But because we’ve been the victims of this industrial forestry, where people are seen as the enemies of forestry we’ve inherited this situation which still exists to this day.”