Dr Peter Garson, Convenor, Carstramon Wood Nature Reserve, Scottish Wildlife Trust
Peter Garson’s lecture introduced the key aspects of the human history of the wood, and, in part, its natural history, over the last 400–500 years.
The wood lies in the Fleet valley and is shown on Blaeu’s map of the mid-17th century, where it is named ‘Karstromen’ – which may be understood as ‘plain of the elder trees’. General Roy’s map of 1755 shows the Doon (the hill) of Carstramon heavily wooded, but more sparsely in the area immediately to the north of that, which is now part of the nature reserve. Oak has almost certainly grown on the hill since around 1600, so that it can be classified as ‘ancient woodland’. The alternative spelling of the hill as ‘Castramont’ has been interpreted as a Latin name meaning ‘fort on the hill’ or similar, but there is no evidence for such a feature.
Remnants of stone dykes within the reserve in the area north of the Doon indicate the creation of field enclosures sometime after 1755, probably in connection with cattle-raising by the Cally Estate. Old beech trees with wide-spreading branches, still standing in the wood, suggest that they were planted in open ground to provide shade and fodder for the cattle.
Cally Estate purchased Carstramon in 1799, prior to that it was owned by the Rusko Estate. James Murray established a tannery in Gatehouse in 1768, and bark from Carstramon may have been used in the tanning process there. The OS Name Books compiled around 1850 record that the Doon was ‘thickly planted with wood, chiefly oak and beech’ and the area to its north (now within the reserve) was ‘a large tract of plantation, chiefly oak and beech’. Within the wood there is evidence for oak coppicing, probably for constructional timber, or for bark for tanning or for charcoal. Five charcoal platforms can still be seen in the wood. Tanning continued in Gatehouse until the 1840s; coppicing continued in the wood until 1931. Wood from Carstramon was also used to make bobbins in the upper Birtwhistle Mill (adjacent to the present Mill on the Fleet).
In 1985, Mrs Murray-Usher leased Carstramon Wood (71 acres) to the Scottish Wildlife Trust and it became a nature reserve thereafter. On her death in 1990, it was bequeathed to the Trust. The wood has been classified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) since 1967.
In 1987, 160 oak saplings were planted on open ground north of the Doon; about 50 of these survive. The removal of sycamore on the east side of the Doon resulted in a bracken invasion here, which has been successfully managed by use of a ‘bracken-bruiser’ to break the stems of the bracken. Roe deer eat tree saplings and can also impact on natural regeneration of woodland. Two small ‘coupes’ have also been cleared to allow natural regeneration, but with poor results. However, fenced enclosures and the use of tree guards on individual saplings have been beneficial in encouraging mixed tree growth. Stone dykes have also been maintained through volunteer help in order to prevent stock from adjacent farmland entering the wood.
Turning to the natural history of the wood, the speaker described the significance of the wood for its pied flycatcher population. A summer migrant from West Africa. the flycatchers have been encouraged to nest by the provision of nesting boxes; in one year recently, almost 300 chicks were counted in the wood’s boxes. The movement of grey squirrels into the Stewartry in recent years does present a serious threat to the native red squirrel population through the spread of squirrel pox. However, there are encouraging signs that the pine marten population is on the increase locally which will have the effect of keeping grey squirrels away. This increase follows a reintroduction of the marten in Glen Trool in 1981; pine marten boxes have also been erected on trees in Carstramon Wood.
D.F.D.