Abbotshaugh Community Woodland

Abbotshaugh Community Woodland is situated north of Falkirk. The first community planting was the result of an advert in the local newspaper.The area planted in March 1996 was the site of Dalderse Mill Farm which was the last working farm in the Dawson ward of Falkirk. The second area planted in March 1998 was Farm Road Community Woodland which incorporated memorial plantings. The third area planted was Coblebrae Community Woodland in March 2000. All sites were planted as a native mixed woodland.

By 2001 there was some confusion regarding the areas that were planted and so a community group from the Dawson Ward of Falkirk called the Abbotshaugh Alliance was formed to represent the community interest.The name Abbotshaugh was chosen because it is an historically correct name for the land where the first and second planting took place.The woodlands are bound on the north by the river Carron which was straightened for most of its tidal coarse in the 18th century.

The original course of the river can be viewed as a digital image on the National Library of Scotland web site; the particular survey of interest is by Timothy Pont who completed a universal survey of Scotland at the end of the 16th century. It was not published in his lifetime, but formed the template for Gordon of Straloch whose work was published in the Atlas Novus by Johan Blaeu in 1654. Pont's MS 32 shows the river north of Falkirk,the lands of Abbotshaugh are marked as "A "east of Nether Daldarse, Johan Blaue's edition of Stirlingshire shows much the same except for the addition of trees, between two the trees N/E of Daldarse can again be found the letter "A" representing Abbotshaugh. This is not clear on the digital images but can be seen on the reproduction maps published jointly by Bartholomew and the Royal Geographical Society of Scotland who own one of the original Blaue edition of Stirlingshire.

The River Carron (Forth) of today is a man made water way and since the destruction of Arthur's O'On has seen many changes,when Carron Iron works was established they used the river to power their mills and to transport the raw materials and finished products. Charles Gascoigne was part of the early life of the works and had a hand in much of the landscape as we know it today. As well as straightening the river, lands on both sides of the river were improved and as a consequence brought greater profit to the lairds of the day.Carron House as it was known in John Ogilvie's time was part of this work and lay across the river from a crook of land known in Ogilvie,s time as Greenhaugh.The Greenhaugh and Gairdoch was a name given to land that prior to improvement was inundated by the sea at high tide.

Further reading

• John Ogilvie v Carron Iron works
• Local author John Kincaid's accounts of the peninsular war

External links

• Abbotshaugh Community Woodland on Greenspace Scotland
• Abbotshaugh 1794 on National Archive of Scotland
• Timothy Pont ms 32 circa 1590 National Library of Scotland
• Johan Blaue 1654 National Library of Scotland
• Paths of Abbotshaugh
• Falkirk North
• Historical sites

Coordinates: 56°01′22″N 3°46′19″W / 56.02278°N 3.77194°W