By Elizabeth McQuillan
Along the Moray Firth coastline, east of Nairn and west of Forres, a hilly landscape of sand smothers an area seven miles by two miles. Beneath the undulating sand lies the ancient Barony of Culbin (pronounced Coo-been) and the estate of Kinnaird.
The 735-acre estate was inherited from the Morays of Culbin by the Kinnaird family in the 15th century and was a fertile and lush place, with orchards and vast fields of barley.
Alongside the "big hoose" of the estate there would have been the home farms, a dovecot for storing winter meat and several farming crofts that would make a living variously from the land and sea. There was also likely to have been a church.
Mounds of sand had been collecting on the shore of the Moray Firth to the west of Culbin over time, with the threat of encroachment on to the estate. With regular gales from the east, the dunes were able to advance towards the estate at quite a rate.
In the autumn of 1676, the rich grain harvest had to be abandoned when a great storm battered the coastline one night. The tempest lifted vast deposits of sand and strewed its cargo over the fields, suffocating any plant life below and rendering the landscape barren.
The shifting mountains of sand were lifted by every storm and gale thereafter. These caused the formation of golden peaks, troughs, and gullies through which the wind funnelled. Like the desert, the dunes were near-impossible to navigate as they changed shape with the whims of the wind. But every year the dunes seeped further into the estate, burying the land and any possibility of revenue from a once prosperous barony.
In 1694, a great sandstorm caused by westerly gales finally engulfed the main house and buildings of Culbin, and nothing remained of the barony. John Martin of Elgin wrote of the storm at the time:
"The wind comes rushing down through the openings between the hills, carrying with it immense torrents of sand, with a force and violence almost overpowering.
"Clouds of dust are raised from the tops of the mounds and are whirled about in the wildest confusion and fall with the force of hail.
"Nothing can be seen but sand above, sand below and sand everywhere. You dare not open your eyes but must grope your way about as if blindfolded."
Marram grass, juniper and broom bushes would have at one time stabilised the sands along the coastline, but much of this had been utilised locally for thatching and fuel.
Aware of the evident environmental consequences, in 1695 the Scottish parliament passed an Act to forbid the uprooting of these plants, and this is still in force today.
This once rich estate (which had been plundered by Montrose only 50 years before) was brought to its knees and became worthless. It changed hands a number of times over the next 200 years.
With the dramatic sandscape constantly shifting, the main house and some other buildings have had a gasp of air, with tempting glimpses of masonery occasionally exposed. Winter lochs appear each year amid the dunes and probably mark the original course of the River Findhorn.
In the 1920s, the Forestry Commission took ownership of the area and set about making incredible changes with some groundbreaking forestry techniques. After replanting with marram grass proved unmanageable, they tried a method known as "thatching". This involved laying brushwood east–west over the sand (and wiring it down in exposed areas), then planting seedlings amongst the thatch. This prevented sand blowing away, provided shelter for the seedlings, conserved soil moisture and added humus when it rotted.
Since that time, tree plantations in 30-acre patches have been thatched and planted, the sands stabilised and whole new habitats created for birds and wildlife on what had become Scotland’s desert.
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