deesidewalks.com

Welcome to Deesidewalks.com, a website for people looking for walking routes on Deeside in Scotland, in partnership with ifootpath.com.


At present there are 13 walks to choose from, from around Ballater and Loch Kinord - and with more walks added regularly.

The Newfoundlander lumber camp at Dalmochie

This site is now a picnic table surrounded by what appear to be three corners of a log cabin. There is concrete and brick underfoot indicating that there once was some sort of a construction here and the four corners each have a plaque telling you the history of the spot. 

Dalmochie lumber camp, Pannanich, Deeside
The site of the old lumber camp
In World War II Britain badly needed more timber, but there was a shortage of able-bodied, skilled men to produce it. The British government sent out a plea for aid and Newfoundland, a province of Canada, responded by forming The Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit.

Newfoundland lumberjacks who volunteered for the unit were sent to locations in the UK including here, at Dalmochie near Ballater, to fell trees and produce the timber the country needed. The camp was built in 1940. 

A headstone at Tullich Church, Deeside
A headstone commemorating a Newfoundlander
The full camp consisted of a cookhouse, a recreation hut and three bunkhouses with capacity to sleep over a hundred men. Rough hewn logs were used to build the huts with moss stuffed between the logs to keep out the wind. 

Initially the felled trunks were loaded onto trucks and taken to Ballater railway station. In the winter of 1941 though deep snow covered the slopes and ponies with sleds were used to carry the trunks down the hill and to a newly constructed sawmill. 

You can also find evidence of the lumber camp and the men who worked there in Tullich churchyard. Two headstones, including this one (right) commemorate Newfoundlanders who died working in Deeside.

For more information please see the plaques at the site of the old lumber camp. 

Features on:

Pannanich

8 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks for the feedback Jeremy, much appreciated.

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  2. Until the 1940s the seemingly endless supply of trees dominated Washington's economic development, with mill towns and lumber camps springing up throughout the state.

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  3. I would like to visit this camp, I think we should be in touch with nature!

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