Erchless Forest East, Near Beauly, Inverness-shire

Location

Erchless Forest East sits on the north side of Glen Glass, approximately halfway between Beauly and Glen Affric, near the village of Struy in Inverness-shire. The forest overlooks Strathglass and the River Beauly with Glen Strathfarrar to the west. Renowned for its stunning scenery, extensive woodland cover, biodiversity and some of the finest examples of native Caledonian forest in Scotland can be found in this region.

The forest sale presents an excellent opportunity to acquire a well located, sizeable forest that is seldom available close to Inverness and the well-established timber market in the northeast of Scotland.

Description

The forest was established in two stages with the southern half of the forest planted by the Forestry Commission in 1959, followed by the northern half, by Erchless Estate, in 1968.

Since then, some significant restructuring has taken place with forest road construction and the first phase of felling and replanting in 1996, with further felling taking place between 2012 and 2017. This focused on the removal of lower-value Lodgepole pine and replacing this with higher-yielding, improved Sitka spruce to the north of the forest.

Approximately 86.88 hectares of the forest that was felled between 2012 and 2017 was left fallow and can be restocked with Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, mixed conifer and native broadleaved species. Parts of these areas already have mixed species natural regeneration taking place, creating the opportunity to focus replanting on the more productive areas to maximise future timber production.

The remaining mature timber extends to approximately 105 hectares with an estimated standing volume in the region of 44,000 m³, with several stands demonstrating excellent productivity. The Sitka spruce, in particular, is performing well with volumes in the most fertile areas of the forest estimated to be standing around 700m³ per hectare. Felling of these areas can be expected over the next five - ten years, presenting an excellent opportunity to secure a significant source of tax-free timber revenue.

Natural regeneration has flourished throughout the forest with native broadleaves improving the overall forest design and biodiversity to help meet the principles of the UK Forestry Standard. Crunaglack, in the south-eastern corner of the forest, was felled in 1999 and has since regenerated naturally, increasing the proportion of native woodland. In doing so, it allows timber production to be concentrated on the most productive areas, which can be replanted.

The forest has significant potential to produce an excellent timber resource over time in a stunning location with scope to consider the development of a forest cabin to enjoy the outstanding panoramic view across Glen Glass.

The previous LTFP has now expired and so a purchaser will have the ability to create their own Forest Plan to suit their own management objectives going forward.

For more details please refer to the sales particulars and contact the Selling Agents for more details.