The Emergence of Wooplaw
The Emergence of Wooplaw - Donald McPhillimy
Finding the ideal woodland or even bare fields for sale in the local area wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Land is notoriously hard to buy in Scotland, living as we do in the post feudal era. Only just post feudal. We put out feelers and discussed in great detail what we would do with the woodland once we got it. There was no prototype. We found out later that this would be the first time in the UK that a community group would purchase a woodland. We didn’t have the language but we called it a community woodland anyway.
We were inspired by other young people thinking about woodlands in new and exciting ways. Reforesting Scotland started publishing its journal entitled The Tree Planters Guide to the Galaxy, full of exciting ideas about how Scotland could increase its natural tree cover and be more like the Nordic countries, especially Norway. Scottish Native Woods was formed promoting new planting of native trees, especially along rivers. Trees for Life started to become active in the Loch Affric area and published a beautiful diary. Suddenly trees weren’t just for professional foresters but also for people from all walks of life. Poets, musicians, wood workers, teachers, artists, community activists and many more.
Then in the summer of 1987, just as we were wondering if we would ever be successful, we heard about Wooplaw Woods, just 5 miles up the road from Blainslie. A combination of four small woods plus some fields. We went up to have a look.
Well, it wasn’t heart shaped but it did have a stream, the Allan Water, running through it. And one of the fields looked almost like an axehead. The great thing was that it was really varied, from patches of young silver birch to some very large beech and conifers. There was a lot of mid age Scots pine, Douglas fir and birch, ideal for thinning and producing useful products. The wood lay in a dip in the hills, known as a waup surrounded by gentle hills or laws, in the Borders dialect. It is in between Lauder, Blainslie, Earlston, Galashiels and Stow. Ideal, we thought. A community woodland for all these central Borders communities. The woods and fields extended to 55 acres, for an asking price of £30,000 which seemed like a lot of money. Worryingly, the closing date was in the autumn and it was already summer.
To be continued….
