Carrbridge carves out a niche with chainsaw contest

1 / 8

2 / 8

3 / 8

4 / 8

5 / 8

6 / 8

7 / 8

8 / 8

The winner of Carve Carrbridge 2014 was... Carve Carrbridge!

The forecast for Saturday was abysmal and as the day started the rain set in, with the ground threatening to turn into a quagmire.

But the 23 carvers, who had come from around the world as ever, simply revved up their chainsaws and got going, while the audience kept coming.

Together, they "saw" it out – with the competitors getting stuck into 40 logs weighing more than one-and-a-half-tonnes whilst the crowd rose to around 2,500 spectators.

The afternoon saw hardly a drop of rain and the crowd ringed the arena on the sports field, several rows deep by the time the all-important second two-hour carving session got under way.

Chief judge Grant Moir, Chief Executive of the Cairngorms National Park Authority, told the 'Strathy': "I'm really impressed with everybody for seeing through the rain and sticking it out. It's another great day for the village. They've done really well.

"The challenge is now for us to pick winners from all these fantastic sculptures."

'We' were Grant's fellow judges, local artists Ann Vastano and Rosie Reed, Wild Furniture's Sandis Mitas, Highland Forestry's Matt O'Brien, timber specialist John Dean of John Gordon & Sons, and Neil Stewart from the Scottish School of Forestry.

Ann said: "I've found what helps me is to go around asking the audience what they think. It's not so easy that they simply pick the winner for me, but it gives me an idea of what's going down well in the gallery."

Their ultimate choice certainly pleased the crowd, as competition "Grand Daddy" Pete Bowsher, from Moffat, won with a sharp-shooting cowboy declaring: "I told you to draw!"

But he confessed to the 'Strathy' that his timing had gone wrong. He revealed: "My idea was to have two gunslingers fighting it out – one for the Yes vote and one for the No. I thought I was running out of time so just did one.

"As it turned out I had nearly an hour left, so if I'd only known I could just have got away with it. I've just had to declare the whole campaign a draw!"

Claiming the title for a seventh time, he added: "It doesn't get any easier as Carve Carrbridge is such a popular event now and attracts top carvers from all over world so I am delighted to have won.

"Although I have been carving for 30 years, it's just something I do at weekends, so all the time I am needing to get faster and more detailed to stay on top."

His piece drew an impressive £950 from the top bidder at the end of competition auction.

Runner-up, from North Kessock, was Iain Chalmers with a totem called "Sweet Dreams", which went for £550, while Cheshire man Tim Burgess' Wizard came third and fetched £480 for his painstaking four-hour session.

Best newcomer was Jason Stoner, from Pennsylvania, with "Have a pint in the woods".

The top price of the day at Rod McKenzie's auction, though, went to Maryland's Tim Klock, who had bewitched one couple from Loch Ness-side from the moment he started work.

Steven and Helinka Rands, of Gorthleck, successfully bid £1,000 for the exquisite "Music of the Highlands" bench, complete with fiddling and banjo-playing woodland creatures.

Helinka confessed: "We've just stayed here all afternoon watching Tim work. It's been fantastic to see it come into the world. We're building a new house near Fort Augustus and I have to admit we haven't a clue where we're going to put it.

"We'll have to redesign the place now!"

Event organiser Gavin Gerrard said: "This is the 12th year for Carve Carrbridge and I am always amazed at how every year the judges have a tougher and tougher job on their hands. The level of carving that we see is outstanding.

"I would like to say a massive thank you to all our supporters, volunteers and our fantastic judges."

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.