Growing up amongst the Beech Woods of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, has given me a passion for wood, woodworking and woodlands, I have spent most of my life working in native broadleaved woodlands, managing and utilizing their timbers. Working with my family and many master-craftsmen over the years, sharing their knowledge and learning their skills, these skills include, Coppicing, coppice management, timber felling, pole-lathe turning, charcoal production, wattle and split ash hurdles, garden products, besom brooms, wooden rakes and forks, thatching products and many more.

Other skills I have learnt include, boat building, wheelwright (turnery), blacksmithing, stone walling, hedge-laying, timber construction, cob walling and more.

Many of the products produced with these crafts can be seen in my gallery page. Perfecting and honing these diverse skills over the years has enabled me to work on a number of private and public projects, the largest of these being the refurbishment of  The Irish National Heritage Park, working as project manager, chief carpenter and interpretive designer, this project involved rebuilding the existing archaeological sites.

This was achieved by interpreting the latest archaeological information (supplied by the School of Archaeological UCD and Crane Beg Consulting) and using my knowledge of native materials, traditional tools,

historical building techniques and a team of competent carpenters (Muintir na Coille Co Op Ltd) and thatchers.

The refurbished Park was officially opened on 12 July 2013 by Brendon Howlin TD, Minister for Public Expenditure. It consists of no less than 16 sites, many of which were completely rebuilt under my direction. These include a fullscale Neolithic longhouse, an early medieval Ringfort, a Viking village, and a Crannóg (or lake dwelling) which includes the largest roundhouse ever built in Ireland. My buildings featured prominently in the internationally acclamed RTE series Secrets of the Irish Landscape and in a number of other documentaries from both RTE and BBC.

My latest project has been the construction of the Viking Long House at the National Botanical Gardens Dublin. The Viking house has been built to commemorate the one thousandth anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf and is a faithful reinterpretation of a Viking house of the period, built using Irish native

materials, Oak, Hazel and Ash, and the building techniques and tools of the relevant periods.

Having spent my working life gathering my skills and knowledge,and I am keen to express them through the work and projects that I undertake, but it is also important to me to pass on these skills, to the next generation and individuals with same passions as myself. To this end I have delivered a number of courses and workshops, covering many of my skills and in particular the management of native woodlands.

The Coppice Silviculture Course was written by me and delivered to G.M.I.T. Forestry Dept. on behalf of Muintir na coille Co Op Ltd. and the course ran for a couple of years  before the Forestry Department closed, it is an in depth course on Coppice Management, Ecology, Economics and its related crafts.

Thank you for visiting my web-site.