Big Tree  thanks to Monteviot House Gardens for our supply of hazel for this years Coppice Furniture courses. Nice straight sticks which will make some great pieces. It was a tight cut right on the banks of the River Teviot. A great place to sit and watch the Otters, Kingfishers and Dabs. 

We are so pleased with the growth that the trees have made in the past two years. We have planted a wide variety of native hardwoods quite close as per a Japanese technique called the Miyawaki method. The high density planting encourages the trees to shoot for the light. This block plant experiment is often used to establish a packed pioneer forest and is generally thought to lad to a more biodiverse ecosystem for birds and pollinators. We thought we would give it a go as a half way between coppice and hedgerow!
The aim is to thin them out when they reach the size to work as chair legs, spoons, shrink pots and other small products in about five to seven years. We will see which species will coppice and replant the gaps with new stock. We should hopefully have a rotating forest of small round wood for future furniture needs. A woodland that stays is a woodland that pays ! We will leave the trees and species with best form to provide someone else in the future with furniture.
Alongside this wee experiment of about 2000 trees we planted is a full hazel coppice of about 500 stems, planted a willow coppice of about 200 pollards, created laid hedges of hazel and birch and have grown on hundreds of oak from local trees to restock the woodlands round about the workshop ! Been a busy couple of years ! Going to be a busy few more to come !!! 

The Big Tree Friday Crew have made a few shave horses as we only run one construction course every year, These are made from locally grown Douglas Fir and Ash. They are four or five foot long and have been made so that there are options on the foot and leg positions and options on the top brace positions allowing for different sizes of product. Buyers must collect please so as to choose the horse that suits them best. £350.00 each. 

Just a wee reminder that if you haven't already seen this wonderful documentary about Tim Stead and his home. its only on STV Player until 31st October 
The film is on STV Player for one more week, until 31 October:
https://player.stv.tv/summary/trixpixmedia-tim-stead-magician-with-wood

Were getting asked all the time now about course dates for 2026 - well after another fantastic year of support from you all we have decided to put up another 30 odd courses on November 17th 2025 !! Get that date in your diary - we've got new makers, new courses, new ideas and look forward to welcoming you all along to the Big Tree workshop. 

Here's number four in the Big Tree short videos that have been produced by Beatrix Wood of TrixpixMedia.  She persuaded me to describe some of the found objects I've been working on for over 40 years. They are storylines and totems in themselves, partly mine, partly the viewers. Colourful, non descriptive, ancestral messages held on a piece of wood, stone, bark, bone or clay. I don't know where this work comes from.

I've always had a fascination for indigenous art and so called primitive art. Through working in archaeology for many years I always wondered if there was more "art-ifacts" in everyday life in prehistory. This is just a response to it all - echo's from my primitive past.

My landscape is a network of places and I don't separate nature and culture or for that matter mind and body.. I spend a lot of time in the immediate area close to the workshop and home. Approaching it from different angles, directions getting my feeling for the sense of place day after day.

These objects I "make" are not seen in isolation from that landscape, they are not independent. It's my sensorial approach - my archaeology of the senses. Mine is not necessarily an ancient memory, it's more of a deeply accepted response to the aged land, recognising my historical ecology !!
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There is some work on show here 

A big thanks to Innes Watson for allowing me to use his music in all these short videos. You will discover more here 

There was a redundant piece of ground quite near the workshop that Lothian Estates kindly gave us on a long lease on for community use. We have slowly turned the space around from an unmanaged space into a tree nursery, polytunnel space, allotment, willow beds and hazel coppice.

We have been experimenting on close planting of native trees for future furniture. The miyawaki method of planting at high density is a way of creating a packed pioneer forest of hazel, alder, oak, field maple, birch and gean amongst others on poor ground. Fingers crossed !

We've been planting up more willow varieties to use on our furniture, basket making and garden structure courses. We're creating a tiny orchard inside newly laid hedges with medieval clay and willow beehives. So the new ground holds loads of future promise and a space where we can learn and show others how to achieve quick return for small wooden products. A woodland that stays is a woodland that pays !
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​2025 courses are filling up fast again ... just saying ! Big Tree Hugs everybody, have a great festive !  Best wishes - Eoin
[email protected]

A big thanks to Innes Watson for allowing me to use his music in all these short videos. You will discover more here ​

The success of any programme of hands on courses and creative workshops is down to the people that attend them ! It's down to the inherent talent, the latent skills of the folks that have the enthusiasm and interest to attend. It's the maker inside them all !

I'm always in early on course days setting up all the tools, laying out the wood ready to work, wondering what the timber is going to turn out like and wondering what the course participants are going to be like. It's such a privilege for me to meet such nice, warm, friendly, bright, conversant people. It gives me faith in humanity and chuffs me to have brought them together. The craic soon starts .. you know before anyone picks up an axe that it's going to be good ! The trepidation in some of the faces will soon disappear as the hidden maker is revealed.

The old dairy buildings and yard at Harestanes, Lothian Estates makes for a calm and unique work space. The sense of tradition, working heritage, being on the land and using the local timber adds to it all. Immersed in the "old ways" only because we use old tools and methods,  but absolutely "of the present", in that we make contemporary pieces of furniture. It's being part of a continuing tradition that most people haven't really thought of when they sign up on a course - however they totally get it by the time they leave.

There's a wonderment glowing out of their faces - they just can't quite believe that the beautiful piece they have completed - they have just made with their own hands. It's such a wonderful thing to watch as they discover found confidence. They have found the un-remembered maker inside them !

The courses attendees are our ambassadors, our outreach squad and many return to help develop courses, volunteer to make products, work in the tree nursery, or some like our Friday crew come and make beautiful products (set the world to rights !)  My homies - love them all to bits !

So part 2 hopefully shares an atmosphere of the place, gives hope and optimism  - and the reason - not just the need to be part of it all !

​2025 courses are filling up fast again ... just saying ! Big Tree Hugs everybody, have a great festive !  Best wishes - Eoin
[email protected]

A big thanks to Innes Watson for allowing me to use his music in all these short videos. You will discover more here ​

Big Tree pal Beatrix Wood of Trixpixmedia has just completed a series of four video shorts about Big Tree Society. It's an acknowledgement of  many things, but mainly to the support and following that we have had in the past fifteen years by all the amazing people that have attended  a course here at Harestanes.

​It's really a nod to the 5000 people who didn't know they could work in wood. or for that matter complete an amazing piece of furniture. To all those lovely and infectiously friendly volunteer makers that turn up week in week out and to all those other "drop-ins" that have spread the word - a big thanks because we couldn't have done it without you !

The videos are a bit about what I'm about, a bit about what we're about, and a bit about what the future may be about !!!
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Please get in touch if you found the courses enjoyable, life changing - or if you want to help in the coming years!
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2025 courses are filling up fast again ... just saying ! Big Tree Hugs everybody, have a great festive !  Best wishes - Eoin
[email protected]

A big thanks to Innes Watson for allowing me to use his music in all these short videos. You will discover more here ​

Another great day of instruction by Graeme Walker Hedge Laying Instructor & Contractor and skill shown by a hardy group from all over the place. Big Tree thanks to Graham, Mike, Kirsten, Samantha, Diarmuid, Anthony, Tom, Claire and Simon.
That’s the orchard Scotch Hedge at the Big Tree Nursery site all looking ship shape. We will put some new apple trees in and plant up more willow beds now that there is more light introduced. More hazel, holly, hawthorn and hornbeam going in to fill the gaps.