RG Bushell has been working with the Woodland Trust since 2021. The trust has been exceptional in their support for producing home-grown shingles.
Material has been sourced from a site by the Dornoch Firth, which has had an outstanding stand of Larch trees. Unfortunately, the spread of the fungal disease phytophthora ramorum, which is lethal to Larch is encroaching ever northward.
To mitigate this, the Woodland Trust secured funding to pre-emptively fell this stand ahead of infection. This work was part of a greater effort to restore the native Caledonian forest ecology of Scots Pine.
The density of grain means that the shingles produced from this stand will be incredibly durable. So fine is the grain that it is possible to make tangentially split shingles from them, which is only possible with the finest quality timbers.
RG Bushell is not the only beneficiary of this fine stand of Larch. It has also been used by boat builders on the West Coast, and for the construction of a house in Cannich.
These Larch trees are of phenomenal quality. They are over 170 years old, and took root in the 1850s at a time of great upheaval in the landscape, during the clearances. They survived to the Second World War, where they were likely pruned by the Canadian Forestry Corps. This dose of management contributed to this stand having fine, tight grain and very few knots on the lower sections of the trunk: ideal for shingle making.
These trees have also grown tall sheltered from the wind. When exposed to wind, the grain splits in a spiralling twist. This timber splits extraordinarily straight.
Serving Dee, Don & Feughside, Aberdeenshire and in the Scottish Highlands & Islands and further afield by appointment.
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