Strathglass

Reserves are trees left standing after the clear cutting of a plantation.

There was a dramatic increase in the population of Strathglass during the 1940s when workers arrived to construct the Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme. A temporary diesel power station was built to provide electricity. Today the shed that housed the generators remains as a storage facility for the company that runs the hydro scheme. Opposite is a young pine plantation which will eventually be thinned and felled or perhaps lodge in a storm but continue in some form, like the shed.

Digital communication is the most significant infrastructure added to the glens this Century - at least in the lower reaches of the glens. Its physical manifestation can be overlooked but affects almost everything.

The roots of trees submerged when the glens were flooded come loose from the soil and migrate to the dams.

"CUIMHNICHAIBH AIR DAOINE O'N D'THAINIG SIBH"
Remembering the people from whom you have come.
Clan Chishom Society
Canada Branch, 2001.

As we use electricity the water level falls. This reveals patches of bed rock. The rock bears markings. Intrusions, where one rock penetrated another millions of years ago. Ten thousand year old glacial abrasions. The scraping of our machinery a mere generation ago.

Felling trees leaves a similar pattern on every stump. This stump is in Comar Wood dun - an Iron Age settlement. Settlements leave a similar pattern where ever they occur. Trees are returning to cover the dun.