DESCRIPTION:

RE-PLANNING OF FORESTRY OPERATIONS. CONSTRUCTION OF WOOD CHIP DRYING SHEDS. CONVERSION OF BUILDINGS FROM BURNING OIL TO BURNING WOOD CHIPS.

The central area of the Estate, within the perimeter wall is listed in the “Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland”. Much of the planting was designed by WS Gilpin circa 1820 to form an arboretum and formal setting for Whittingehame House. There are areas of much earlier tree planting around the Tower including the Whittingehame Yew, the structure of the Deer Park and several unique specimen trees.

www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/gardens-inventory

The need to remove modern coniferous planting and maintain the Listed trees was a major financial burden for the new owner who inherited the Estate on the death of 4th Earl of Balfour in 2003. Part of the strategy to conserve the listed trees involved making best use of any felled timber and using all off-cuts and poor quality timber to heat the estate buildings or for sale.

At Eastfield Steading and the Walled Garden the original steam boilers rooms and chimneys have been used to house modern efficient chip burning boilers, to sell heat to building users. The project has been supported by grant funding and has substituted wood for oil heating, particularly for Whittingehame Tower. Two sustainable forestry jobs are partly funded and the designed landscape is improved as inappropriate planting is removed.

DETAILS:

Client The Whittingehame Farming Company

Location Whittingehame, East Lothian