GB-SCT

Balmoral Castle has been the residence of the Royal Family in Scotland ever since it was acquired by Prince Albert for Queen Victoria in 1852. The castle’s construction was completed in 1856, and since then, Balmoral has been the Scottish home of the Royal Family. The tradition is that each successive owner of the Estate takes a close personal interest in running and improving it. Balmoral Estate recently purchased a Wood-Mizer LT40 WIDE Mobile sawmill to efficiently maintain the forests and green areas surrounding the Castle.

“Scotland is beautiful with its landscapes, numerous castles, and unpredictable weather. Travelers going north of Edinburgh get to Perth, where they might think it’s the last bastion of civilization, but over the mountains, there is Inverness. With its microclimate and fertile grounds, this surprisingly warm little section of Northern Scotland is perfect for growing good timber,” says Ronald Munro Ferguson, the owner of Novar Sawmill.

In Dunfermline, a little village north of Edinburgh, Scottish Wood has grown substantially over the past 20 years. They are a social enterprise - a charity which owns a sawmill and supplies local builders with locally grown timber. “We are primarily a hardwood sawmill. We cut homegrown, Scottish grown hardwoods and also some larch and Douglas fir,” Jim Birley from Scottish Wood says.

Just outside of Edinburgh, Scotland, Sandy Crook has retired from his full time tree surgeon business to spend more time with what he really enjoys, seeing timber turned into final products. With his full complement of Wood-Mizer sawmills and new MP360 planer/moulder, he can do everything in-house.

James Thomson of Glenrothes, Scotland started Thomson Timber in 2007. Previously trained as a mechanical design engineer, he had worked in Australia and Edinburgh before returning home and taking up teaching woodworking for twenty years.