What is Lisnavagh and who are we?

Lisnavagh is, essentially speaking, a family run farm in the north of Co Carlow, Ireland.

The Lisnavagh Timber Project is one of several enterprises that have been set up at Lisnavagh (see www.lisnavagh.com to learn more). It is principally managed by myself, William Bunbury, but with considerable help from the team (pictured below).

As with many farms and estates, there is a need to diversify and seek alternative income to the pure agriculture upon which we have relied for so long. The basic resources at Lisnavagh are farmland, buildings... and 250 acres of mainly hardwood woodland.

When was the Lisnavagh Timber Project started?

After some research in 2000, I started The Lisnavagh Timber Project in 2001. I believed that there was a gap in the market for homegrown hardwood timber and that the Lisnavagh Timber Project could fill that gap. Through the internet and word-of-mouth we soon became known to a number of small to medium scale woodworkers and furniture makers for our air dried and kiln dried timber.

Over the next couple of years, we began to become an established part of the small to medium scale homegrown hardwood market in Ireland - some would say that we are leading the field. Our annual sales have doubled or tripled each year since we began business.

In 2004, we expanded the operation by building a kiln, establishing a workshop and setting up a new office. We started dimensioning timber for customers and making items such as kitchen worktops, bookshelves and other joinery items.

Where does the timber come from?

So far, most of the timber in the Project has come from our own woods here at Lisnavagh, and this is mainly from windblown trees. We have also been taking in timber from other sources where we feel that the quality or uniqueness of the timber merits inclusion in the Timber Project.

We insist on offering total traceablility of our timber to our customers. (Photos of the tree included!) All of our timber is home-grown Irish timber from sustainable sources and mainly from here at Lisnavagh.