Mountains of Scotland

[tulloch]

Really beautiful photos. Thanks. Sets me to dreaming.

[KiltedDixon]

Okay...I am ready to put on my kilt and go for hike.

[Jack Daw]

Great photos, gentlemen. Thanks very much for those.

[SlackerDrummer]

Where did you get that idea from?

I guess that would be the Scottish Ministry of Misinformation (i.e. one of your lovely tour-guides).

Much of the Highland's timber in particular and the UK's in general by Victoria's time, was already on the decline, due to the first part of the industrial revolution and before that even,(at first charcoal and household fuel too before coal became widely available and then an unquenchable need for pitprops for the new mines and timber for the new factories) mainly and two World Wars polished off most of the rest ----after her time.

They told us some story about how Victoria banned the use of English timber to make British naval ships, so Scotland's trees were cut down instead. I guess it was just good, old-fashioned England-bashing.

My bad.

[tripleblessed]

Jock, I went to the site you suggested, and loved it. Recognized and warmly remembered many. Thanks much.

[Jock Scot]

I guess that would be the Scottish Ministry of Misinformation (i.e. one of your lovely tour-guides).


They told us some story about how Victoria banned the use of English timber to make British naval ships, so Scotland's trees were cut down instead. I guess it was just good, old-fashioned England-bashing.

My bad.

Well if that is what you were told then--------

Oh dear, dear dear!!!

Actually I have not ever heard about that and frankly I don't believe it. Queen Victoria was responsible for many things no doubt, but for this? I don't think so, simply for no other reason, to name one, that Queen Victoria could not have implemented that sort of blanket national instruction. That would have needed an Act of Parliament, which she had little or no control over.

On a practical note and baring in mind that I am not a shipwright, Victorian ships would have still used best oak for much of a ships construction(certainly early in her reign, before iron) and frankly Scots oak was not generally good enough and not available in the right quantities and in the right place for naval dockyards to build major ships.

Scotland did have wood ship builders( at Spey Bay for example) that made smaller ships and boats for local trade and fishing of course.We must not forget that much of Queen Victoria's time coincided with "ironclad" ships and many of those were fitted out with timber from the Empire by then.Why did we import the timber? Well OK, imported teak and mahogony were superb woods as are others, but I suspect the real reason was that the the UK had run out of suitable wood after centuries of felling. Make no mistake, the UK was not left denuded of trees, it just did not have enough of the right ones!

[Bugbear]

* Bugbear crawls out of a crack in the wall and scurries across the floor before the giant foot comes crashing down. *

My computer memory got fried a week ago, so I had to get a new one. I'm still setting it up.

Glad to see CDNSushi is all right, going through the other two-hundred-fifty threads of the week.

Thanks for posting in the Scottish mountain thread.

[Alan H]

In fact I think that the "English Oaks for ships, Scottish Oaks to stoke the fires of industry" command came from a royal throne quite a bit before Victoria...if in fact it is true.

Redshank, I just want to say that I find the picture of the bridge at the head of Loch Awe to be wonderful, and it reinforces the conviction that I will walk there, someday.

[Alan H]

...and figheadair...

I would like to go *there*...on my own two legs, as well.

[Bugbear]

In fact I think that the "English Oaks for ships, Scottish Oaks to stoke the fires of industry" command came from a royal throne quite a bit before Victoria...if in fact it is true.

I wonder if the "Little Ice Age" of the 16-hundreds damaged the forests of Scotland other than people using the wood for fuel?