Glen Lean

The hills on both sides of Glen Lean are heavily forested and much of that would have been planted about 40 years ago , during the planting boom of the  early 1980s.

The tax changes that kicked that boom off were actually first introduced under a  Labour government  but in his first budget in June 1979 Thatcher's Chancellor Geoffrey Howe continued and extended important forestry tax reliefs including  exemptions  from capital gains and inheritance tax.

The  original intention was to stimulate tree planting for good forestry reasons , but instead in the early 1980s much unsuitable ground was used - including for example in the Flow Country - so that  speculative investors could benefit from the tax advantages.

Most of this timber looks good, but there are places around Argyll where that is far from being the case, and where it is hard to get the wood out.