From Tree to Carpentry – Creating the New Sanctuary Benches

It was the 12th of April, 2021 when both the Community Centre and Sanctuary, the heart and soul of what is now called the Park Ecovillage Findhorn, went up in flames through an act of arson. Over three years later the new Sanctuary is being built by Greenleaf Design and Build as part of the work of one of the Ecovillage based charities Park Ecovillage Findhorn, PET. FHT has previously contributed to this important community structure as part of its community building charitable purpose by helping to clear the sanctuary site of the old buildings, raising finance to hire a portable bandsaw to produce cut timber from storm blown trees for roof sarking and other building needs and preparing large timbers to be important parts of the column and beam structure of the new building which is now rising like a Phoenix out of the ashes.

From the 25th November to the 4th of December of this year another phase of FHT activity took place as a group of community carpenters supervised by Steven Porter, a cabinet maker living near Beauly who has been creating benches for the FHT during this past year, came together to create benches for the new building. There will be upholstered benches along with comfortable chairs within the central sanctuary structure. We were making other benches that will hold shoes in the vestibule and in the covered area that will link the building with the original garden that the team took on building.

What was particularly special about this project was that the material used was from Scots Pine trees that had been planted by my father. They had been growing in the wild garden next to the old sanctuary for about 60 years until they were internally cooked by the intense sanctuary fire which resulted in partly charred heart wood. It was these trees that were felled in April 2022 and dragged by the FHT tractor up to Wilkies Wood to be sawn into 50mm thick planks by a hired portable sawmill. They were then transported to be stored and seasoned next to the Findhorn Foundation’s gardeners tool shed.

This has been very much a creative and collaborative venture full of personal and organisational generosity. Green Leaf provided the transport of the wood to Marcassie where Sven Skatun who built up the sawmill for his company Nor-Build Timber Fabrication and Fine Carpentry Ltd offered the use of their large planer/thicknesser to initially dress the five metre long planks. Next it was the generosity of the Findhorn Foundation who offered their maintenance building to house the construction of the benches. The team then brought most of their own tools to do the actual debarking, measuring, cutting, shaping, joining, sanding, oiling and finishing work which you can see in this picture collage.

I am sure we are all keen to see this lovely work installed in the new building which will happen in the New Year. For now we give thanks to the organisations mentioned previously and the team that worked on this project, especially team leader Steven Porter, and also to all the others who gave of their love and skill – Andrew Newman, Hugo Klip, George Paul, Nikos Valmas, Donald MacDonald, John Willoner, Lester Chilman and myself, Jonathan Caddy. Particular thanks also goes to Danielle Macleod who was inspired to offer the team a beautiful and nourishing lunch when it was most needed (what a great community act) and to John Clausen and his work with the charity Hygeia and an anonymous community member who were both willing to financially back FHT to undertake this work. It would not have been possible without their support and we are immensely grateful.

This project was short but inspiring and brought out all that is best in the individuals and organisations involved and a strong sense of dynamic and creative community. FHT are proud to have initiated and been involved in such a project.