Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Deeside timber firm teams up with north-east boat festival for unique restoration project

Keith Muir from Portsoy Boat Shed (left) and Michael Bruce (Glen Tanar) who donated the timber
Keith Muir from Portsoy Boat Shed (left) and Michael Bruce (Glen Tanar) who donated the timber

A Deeside estate has teamed up with a north-east boating festival, which attracts thousands of visitors to the area, to help restore a historic wooden vessel.

Michael Bruce of Glen Tanar estate was involved in a fundraising event for Portsoy’s Scottish Traditional Boat Festival in April this year when he saw first-hand the scale of the restoration projects.

Keith Muir, manager of the Boat Shed, revealed he was short of larch boards for decking planks and was struggling to source the wood.

Mr Bruce offered enough larch to complete the project, with the remainder donated to the boat-building scheme at nearby Banff Academy.

The deal reignites a historic timber trade association from when the Glen Tanar estate supplied Buckie shipyards with boatskin larch.

Mr Bruce said: “Roger Goodyear, co-chairman of the festival, gave us a tour of the fantastic new hostel, the converted Sail Loft heritage building, and introduced us to Keith.

“The Boat Shed is a charity that works with disadvantaged children to build and restore boats. Their major restoration project at the moment – all they had left were bits of the wooden keel – is the re-building of Sea Spray, a traditional in-shore sail fishing boat.”

Mr Bruce said he knew he could help Mr Muir source the necessary timber he had been struggling to find.

He added: “When I first came back to Glen Tanar in the mid-1980’s, we still carefully selected and supplied top quality boatskin larch.

“It was a product that attracted the highest prices and was supplied to Buckie and other traditional boatbuilding yards that used larch as a ships timber. Sadly, these yards have closed down.”

The donation comes after Portsoy and the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival was struck by a flash flood which threatened to overshadow festivities.

Only a fortnight before Prince Charles was due to open the Sail Loft bunkhouse – a sister venture to the boat shed project – a flash flood washed away a nearby bridge.

Local volunteers raced against time to erect a temporary footbridge and ensure the festival and official opening by the Duke of Rothesay could go ahead as planned.