Using Home-Grown Scottish Timber
The Customer: Munro Civil Engineering
We’ve been working with Douglas Munro, Director of Munro Civil Engineering, since the company was established in 2021. Over the past few years, it’s been great to play a small part in the growth of the business by supplying home-grown Scottish timber for a wide range of projects.
Munro Civil Engineering offers an impressive breadth of services, including clerk of works, forest road construction, coastal protection works, commercial building projects, and bridge construction and maintenance. Like us, they place real value on quality, reliability, and good service, which makes them a pleasure to work alongside.
Their most recent project on Kinrara Estate was a great example of this shared approach.
The Project
Kinrara Estate lies just south of Aviemore, covering approximately 9,309 acres of Upper Speyside. Following a change of ownership, the new estate owners identified that seven bridges required either full replacement or essential repair.
Several of the bridges needed temporary but robust repairs to ensure they remained safe and functional through the winter months, with full refurbishment planned for the summer. After carrying out detailed structural inspections, Douglas Munro developed a clear plan and issued a comprehensive cut list, which was sent to us at Logie Timber.
Timber Selection & Supply
From the outset, it was clear that locally sourced Scottish Douglas fir was the right material for the job. Douglas fir is well suited to bridge construction thanks to its strength, stability, and long service life, particularly in demanding outdoor environments.
For the larger structural members, the timber was strength graded to SS (visual grade) – the equivalent of C24 – a service we’re able to offer in-house at Logie Timber.
We also discussed timber quality standards, and it was agreed that all beams would be supplied as Premium grade, meaning the sections were cut to ensure heartwood on all four faces for maximum durability and performance.
It was a pleasure to be cutting some substantial sections for this project, including:
- 200 × 100 × 3.6m Douglas fir deck planks / kerbs – 144 lengths
- Post & beam (off-saw, premium grade) – 100 × 100 × 4.8m Douglas fir
Challenging Conditions
It wasn’t until we received site photographs from Douglas that we fully appreciated just how remote and challenging some of the bridge locations were. Despite the terrain, Munro Civil Engineering’s investment in specialist machinery and the experience of their team meant the work was carried out efficiently and safely.
All bridge builds and repairs were completed within the required timeframe, ensuring the estate’s access routes were secure for the winter ahead – a testament to the professionalism of Douglas and his team.
Working Together
Projects like this highlight the value of using home-grown Scottish timber, processed locally and matched carefully to the application. We’re proud to have supported Munro Civil Engineering on the Kinrara Estate project and look forward to working together again on future schemes.
At Logie Timber, we have extensive experience supplying timber for bridge construction and structural projects, and our team genuinely enjoys working with large-section material. If you’re planning a bridge build or structural project of any size, you’re always welcome to visit the mill to see the quality of our timber, our processes, and the support our office team can offer from start to finish.
Douglas Munro Says
“Rob and the team at Logie Timber are nothing short of a pleasure to work with. From the initial enquiry seeking advice on the different timber options available through to supply of the quote and then delivery they went above and beyond to meet our tight timescales but always remaining realistic throughout ensuring we were able to manage the expectations of our client. The quality of the timber was fantastic and allowed us to complete our works successfully and on time. We will have no hesitation in using them again, it is great to have local supplier providing such a high quality products and seamless service. Thanks again.”
