Roof Thatcher Scotland

Quite rare in the highlands hence our use of about six other materials.

Roof thatcher scotland.

Old thatched cottage balephuil. Scotland s thatched buildings recorded for the first time all 305 of scotland s historic traditional thatched buildings have been recorded for the very first time as part of a unique field work project which lasted 18 months. Thatching is one of the oldest building crafts. It is a matter of historical fact that she changed scotland utterly and it is long enough ago for people to have forgotten that.

Materials found for thatching roofs in scotland were once extremely diverse including oat and barley straw rye reed heather bracken broom rushes marram grass grown on sand dunes and eel grass a type of marine grass. Those that survive in anything like their original form are now rare. This picture shows a roof we thatched in edinburgh in 1990 which with the garage totalled over 10 000sq ft of roof. Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw water reed sedge cladium mariscus rushes heather or palm branches layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof since the bulk of the vegetation stays dry and is densely packed trapping air thatching also functions as insulation.

Scottish thatching highlands and islands styles are quite different from what most people would think of as a thatched lowland scottish and english styles are very similar they both use cuilcor water reed norfolk reed. This was the primary material used for roofing in england until the turn of the 20th century. Other notable thatching milestones have been working on some of the biggest thatched roofs to be found anywhere in the uk which also happen to be in scotland. Thatch was the first roofing material used in scotland and the country has one of the most diverse ranges of thatching materials and techniques found in europe.

It involves layering the material and then securing the layers to the wooden beams of the roof. Over 20 different types of thatching materials. Thatch is actually a tightly woven blend of vegetation such as straw reed or rushes that is used to create a roof. Now in some areas only one or two thatched buildings survive where once there may have been hundreds.

Thatched buildings were once a familiar sight in scotland but their numbers have declined since the mid 19th century. I am not much interested in thatcher s life after 1990 when she stopped being prime minister but in her time in downing street she changed so much the conservative party british politics europe the uk arguably the world and definitely scotland.