Dalmochie Camp

The website text produced for Dalmochie Camp webpages on the Forest Heritage Scotland website (www.forestheritagescotland.com).

Introduction: Britain Needs You!

On November 17th, 1939, the Newfoundland Commissioner for Natural Resources made an important radio announcement.

He called upon Newfoundland lumberjacks to volunteer to go to Britain, where they were desperately needed to cut down trees for the war effort. In response the]Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit (NOFU) was formed.

Dalmochie Camp was one of thirty-five NOFU forestry camps set up across the Scottish Highlands. The camp was built on the slopes of Craig Coilleach, across the River Dee from Ballater.

The first job for the Newfoundlanders on arriving in Scotland was to build the camp. They built log cabins, including bunkhouses, a cookhouse, a recreation hut, an office and a tool shed. The cabins were draught proofed using moss gathered from the forest, which was stuffed tightly between the logs.

On entering Pannanich Wood, now fully restored with trees, it is difficult to believe that these slopes were once cleared of trees in service to the war, but only a short way along the track into the forest you can discover the remaining traces of the lumberjacks' camp.

People Story: "The Newfies are Here"

On a coal delivery run one Saturday morning, local resident Ian Cameron had his first glimpse of the "Newfies Camp".

Only a child at the time, he was sitting in the cab, between the driver and the deliveryman, when the truck was brought to a sudden halt. A caterpillar tractor blocked the road in front. Ian had never seen such a machine;

"The roadside was covered by stacks of logs dragged from the hill above and, to my amazement, and clear memory, the crawler tractor proceeded to turn at right angles and then climb vertically over the log pile, clearing our road"

Ian Cameron (2008) in "Plant & Roots; a social history of Ballater".

This tractor was an example of new equipment brought by the Newfoundlanders that made cutting the trees easier.

The Newfoundlanders felled the trees on the hill and loaded them onto carts. They were taken to Ballater train station to be transported on to their final destinations.

A wet November and December turned the roads to mud and work became dangerous. The Newfoundlanders, however, continued to cut trees to the confusion of visiting wood merchants.

""When it comes the snow will make the road," the lumberjacks confidently said"

W.Passingham (1941) in "Illustrated News"

The Newfoundlanders were used to working in heavy snow back home and relied on it to be able to use sledges to pull the wood down from the hill.