Balmoral: Wood-Mizer LT40 maximising timber output at King's estate

YOU never know where a conversation at the APF may take you.

At last year’s event, it was a visit to the Wood-Mizer stand that had the most surprising outcome. There, marketing manager Marcin Kozlowski was eager to show off the LT40 being demonstrated, which he was proud to say had just been sold to one of the royal estates.

That led to an introduction to Wood-Mizer customer Joe Maclugash, who proffered an open invitation for Forestry Journal to come see the LT40 again once it was situated in its new home at Balmoral.

Described by Queen Victoria as her “dear paradise in the Highlands”, Balmoral Estate has been the royal family’s home in Scotland for more than 170 years. 

READ MORE: Digby Guy: Damage 'done by modern harvesting' worries forester

Privately owned, the castle was purchased unseen in 1848 and, on arrival, the Queen and her new husband Prince Albert quickly fell in love with the place, the beautiful wooded hills reminding them of the landscape of his homeland in Thuringia, Germany.

Down the years, successive royal owners have increased the amenities of the estate and the productivity of its farms and forests. Several of the plantations devised by Prince Albert have been felled on reaching maturity and replaced by new.

Today comprising around 50,000 acres of majestic hills and deer forests, the estate was transformed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth into a modern self-supporting business, at the same time becoming a model for environmentally sensitive management.

Well known as the royal family’s summer home, it has also frequently been in the public eye, never more so than in September of 2022, when the Queen passed away at Balmoral Castle.

Forestry Journal arrived at the entrance two months later to find it bedecked with fresh bouquets of flowers left by members of the public still in mourning for the loss of Britain’s longest-serving monarch.

The sight of those gates, familiar from being shown in so many hours of live news coverage, immediately brought to mind those days following the announcement when the whole country seemed to come to a halt, millions struggling to process the closing of a monumental chapter in its history.

But behind those gates, for the people who live and work on the estate, life – and work – goes on.

Joe Maclugash is the forestry foreman on Balmoral Estate, where he has worked for over 30 years. (Image: FJ)

Among them is forestry foreman Joe MacLugash, who has been at Balmoral for over 30 years. A forestry professional all his life, he started out as a contractor, hand-cutting and contour felling trees in the West Highlands for the Forestry Commission and others. 

“Harvesters were just beginning to make an appearance at that time,” he said. “I thought I could either go into that or pursue estate work. I moved to Invercauld in 1990 with my wife and kids, and a job came up at Balmoral. I thought I might as well go for it, and the rest – as they say – is history.”

He began as a forestry tractorman, attached to the harvesting squad, doing general estate maintenance. At that time, a squad of six managed forestry on the estate. Over the years that’s gradually been whittled down to just two.

“It can be a bit of a struggle to handle everything, at times,” Joe said. “We do get a hand with any really big job. And we don’t get involved in the commercial harvesting side, which is handled by external contractors. Our responsibility is more general maintenance and cleaning up, which is challenging in itself. It’s typically quite varied, so you don’t get bored. That said, this year has mostly been taken up with chipping brash and clearing windblow. 

“The storms last year were a killer. We’re still nowhere near tidying up after that. All around the main estate a lot of veteran trees were knocked over. It’s taken a lot of work to tidy up. One European fir took us a whole week on its own. ”

It was in the aftermath of Storm Arwen and particularly Storm Eunice, which brought down scores of trees across the estate, that the management team got talking about investing in a new sawmill.

Among its various responsibilities, the forestry team has to make sure there is a plentiful supply of firewood. (Image: FJ)

Joe said: “The then Prince of Wales was quite keen, so that pushed it on a bit. We had a contractor come in a few years back with a big, wide-band sawmill, so I had an idea of what I wanted. I did some more research and contacted Wood-Mizer agent Keith Threadgall. At the time I was interested in the LT70, but he suggested the LT40 would be a better machine to start off on and the one being shown at the APF was available for sale, so we managed to get in there quick.”

The LT40 will be taking over for Balmoral’s existing mill, which was installed in 1927 and, somewhat incredibly, still works. Designed and installed by W. Grahams in Perth – which would have sold hundreds of mills like it to estates across the country back in the day – it was originally powered by a water turbine, but was converted to run on electricity in 2015.

In the Balmoral archives there exists a photograph of King Charles as a toddler receiving a lesson in how to move the saw bench using the hand crank – evidence of how long it has been at the heart of the estate, cutting timber for innumerable sheds, bridges and building repairs down the decades.

“It still works okay, but it was starting to show its age,” said Joe. “It isn’t the most accurate thing in the world and the teeth now have to be imported from America and are quite expensive.”

Keith brought the LT40 up the week after the APF and provided a couple of days training for the forestry team and the clerk of works, who supervises repairs and maintenance on the estate.

Balmoral produces tens of thousands of tonnes of timber each year. Much of this is commercial forestry, but the rest is used on the estate, for fencing, repairs, firewood and biomass. (Image: FJ)

“It’s quite a bit to take in,” Joe said. “There are a few things going on at the same time to keep track of. The computer’s a bit daunting to begin with, but once you get your head round it it’s not so bad – and it is accurate.”

The base of the estate’s forestry operation is an old quarry which used to provide material for the 500 miles of roads snaking across the grounds. The mill and castle are just down the hill, while further up is the firewood shed. 

Here is where the LT40 has found its home and will be put to work providing timber for countless jobs across the estate. Joe has plans to build a big drying shed and install a concrete slab for the mill to sit on. A little cover from the elements will be provided from a lean-to sawmill shed. All the timber required will be cut by the LT40 itself.

On our visit, Joe showed off some of what he’d already produced from windblown larch, pine and fir.

“Some will be used by the clerk of works for house maintenance and things like that,” he said. “We’ve had an order from the gamekeepers who’ve got a bridge to repair. There’s always something to do.”

All of Balmoral’s farm and young forestry ground has to be surrounded by fencing to protect against marauding deer. There are also around 150 properties on the estate, including the castle. All repairs and maintenance is carried out by the estate’s works department, a team of six tradesmen and labourers supported by local craftsmen. 

As such, demand for timber is consistently high and, with so many trees brought down in the storms, there’s plenty of raw material available.

Kindling produced here goes out to various properties around the estate – including the castle – and is sold from a shop at the car park. (Image: FJ)

Joe is also responsible for making sure there is a plentiful supply of firewood. For this he relies on a Posch Spaltfix S-360 firewood processor, situated in a purpose-built shed (constructed with timber produced by the old sawmill), and a Posch Autosplit kindling machine. 

“We’re kept busy with that, supplying not only properties on the estate, but a lot of the local area, out to Braemar,” he said. “We’ll make firewood from anything, but mostly softwood. We’re going through a lot of windblown Douglas fir right now. We’ve worked out some of the bigger slabs can be processed into 6-inch logs, perfect for going through the kindling machine. We’re picking out the cleaner cuts and anything else that’s a decent size will go for firewood. The rest will get chipped and used in other jobs or go to power the biomass boiler at Birkhall. Nothing is wasted.”

While most of Joe’s time over the past year has been consumed with clearing windblow to be milled, processed or chipped, his responsibilities across the estate are much broader.

Balmoral Estate has 3,000 hectares of trees, all requiring care and attention to different degrees. This includes substantial forests of Scots pine, which have to be thinned to allow in light for the trees and ground flora to develop – especially important for the conservation of rare species such as capercaillie, Scottish crossbill and crested tit.

There is also the 1,200 ha Ballochbuie Forest, one of the largest remnants of ancient Caledonian pine forest in Scotland. 

Crossed by a cast-iron footbridge, Garbh Allt Falls, one of several spectacular waterfalls on the estate, is found at the heart of the ancient Caledonian pine forest of Ballochbuie. (Image: FJ)

The story goes that soon after Queen Victoria bought the estate, she learned the Caledonian pines had already been sold to a firm of timber merchants in Aberdeen. She decided to ‘rescue’ the wood by buying the timber – probably the first act of forest conservation in Scotland – and accordingly had to pay twice (for the land and trees).

Trees of over 400 years old still stand in this ancient forest, which is carefully managed to ensure its survival and regeneration. In recent years, parts have been fenced off to permit natural regeneration.

“The aim is to achieve continuous cover through natural regeneration,” said Joe. “It’s entirely self-seeded. At a glance you might think nothing’s happening, but you can’t see the trees because of the depth of the heather. There’s quite a few and the fencing is doing its job in keeping the deer back.

“The idea is that once they’re up to a stage that the deer won’t damage them, the fence will be taken down and moved to another area. It’s 10 years since we put the first lot up and it’s interesting to see how quickly they come up when you manage to stop animals grazing on them.

“You can see some patches have had more success than others. Some of the areas I picked already had trees starting to come up, others I deliberately chose because they had nothing, but I think most have something growing in them now.”

It’s an area of stunning natural beauty which Joe always enjoys visiting, though he doesn’t often have cause to.

Trees of over 400 years old still stand in this ancient forest. (Image: FJ)

He said: “It’s a picturesque area, but it’s mostly left to its own devices. The most we’ll do is clear a tree off the road or do the ditches. Very minimal maintenance. Sometimes it takes longer to get to a job than to do the job itself.”

Another interesting forestry project has been the Jubilee Wood, created for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. This is a couple of hectares of treeless hillside bordering an existing woodland, which was fenced off. Pigs were then brought in to help break up the ground and give the seeds somewhere to establish.

Nothing was planted, but in the years since it was left to its own devices, Joe said it had been interesting to see it develop.

“We really didn’t know if it would work, but it’s surprising how well it’s doing now,” he said. “It’s all natural regeneration. As you walk through it, you find the trees are picking the right spots to grow. There’s birch, Scots pine, rowan. There was some lodgepole, but we’re trying to encourage more native species, so the rangers came in to take them out.

“The thinking behind it is if you’ve got an established woodland beside it, a lot of the seed comes from that. There’s not a lot to it, but I like to see the way the trees are establishing. We just have to keep it free of animals. The biggest battle is keeping them out.”

Looking out towards Invercauld – beautiful on a relatively clear day, but weather conditions on the estate can be severe, with temperatures in winter reaching -25°C. (Image: FJ)

More projects of this kind can be expected in the years ahead, under the reign of the new monarch, King Charles, who Joe said had been managing the estate for some time.

“He took over from the Duke of Edinburgh a few years ago and does take quite an interest. Just about every year he adds a new project to the estate. He likes things like horse logging, tree planting and conservation. And he doesn’t like seeing mess.”

Joe’s efforts to reduce mess, care for the estate’s trees and ensure they look their best took on an extra dimension a few years ago, with the hiring of arborist Lyndain O’Brien.

With him on board, tree surgery on the estate became the responsibility of the forestry team, rather than external contractors. That meant Joe had to undertake aerial rescue training, climbing his first tree at the age of 54.

“I quite enjoyed it, but it looks easier than it is,” he said. “The first time I tried climbing trees with the ropes, I couldn’t even get myself off the ground. It took quite a while to get the technique.

Lyndain O’Brien and Joe Maclugash prepare to tackle one of the many trees brought down during storms Arwen and Eunice. (Image: FJ)

“Now, I can handle the easier jobs. If there’s anything outwith my comfort zone, I’ll get Lyndain to do it. But it’s something a bit different and it saves the estate a bit of money.

“We do a tree survey every year and we’ve got to go through the list and action anything brought up. It can be a lot for just two of us to get through. We have some very tall specimens near the entrance. Hemlocks, noble firs, Douglas firs, western red cedar, grandis fir, all sorts. I’ve been up a few of them,  deadwooded a couple. If you want to do a tree like that you’ve got to get up it first thing in the morning. It’s very time-consuming. Cutting stuff off is the easy part. Tidying up takes ages.”

Interesting trees can be found all over the estate, such as this golden Nootka cypress near the entrance. (Image: FJ)

After 30 years on the job it’s nice to know Joe is getting to take on jobs that offer him a new perspective on the estate he calls home. Then again, given its size, variety and history, a lifetime might not provide enough time to explore all that Balmoral has to offer.

Certainly, one afternoon’s tour of its woodlands didn’t feel like enough to scratch the surface. Perhaps one day we’ll get the chance to return and see how things have changed. Hopefully not much.