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The Magnificent Glens.... | ||||||
....Glen Strathfarrar | ||||||
The Glens >> Glen Strathfarrar |
 Along with Glens Affric and Cannich, Glen Strathfarrar drains eastwards into the River Beauly from a vast area of high plateau which stretches to the Peaks of Sgurr a' Chaorachain and Beinn Fhada only 24 kilometers (15 miles) from the west coast. These heavily glaciated valleys are cut into lard gneiss and moine schist rocks giving a landscape, which is rugged and boggy with steep wooded valley sides and bare rocky hills. Ancient maps and writings refer to he whole Beauly river system and estuary as 'Varar', which has come known to us in the place-name Glen Strathfarrar. The meaning is obscure, and it is unusual to find the combination of glen and strath in the same place-name. One possible explanation is that the narrow steep-sided valley at the east end brought in 'Glen', whereas the central section with its wider flat-bottomed valley accounts for the 'strath'. |
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The pinewood in Glen Strathfarrar is a remnant of the ancient 'Forest of Caledon', which - according to a map drawn by the Greek geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd century - stretched from the Beauly Firth to the Argyll coast. The direct descendants of this ancient forest can be found in the fragments of pinewood that remain today scattered throughout the Highlands. However, many have now been virtually destroyed by felling or are engulfed in commercial forestry plantations. Most of the best remaining native pinewoods such as Glen Strathfarrar, Glen Affric, Abernethy, Black Wood of Rannoch, Rothiemurchus, Glen Tanar and Beinn Eighe are managed so as to improve their nature conservation interest. They are our link with the original forests of the Highlands and to stand in them is to feel the past. |
Some small slideshows and picture galleries for you to enjoy. |
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