Historic Environment Scotland supports traditional building materials, craft skills and their continued conservation and maintenance.
We work closely with a range of partners including the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore.
The Highland Folk Museum looks after buildings that represent the diverse range of traditional highland structures.
This includes the different types of thatch that were once a common feature of the Highlands.
In this video, Hannes Schnell from the Highland Folk Museum demonstrates his technique for laying heather thatch.
He explains how the museums partnership with other organisations helps to maintain a source of heather for the thatching.
First of all we have go find the material.
We have to go to the areas where we can find the heather, then physically pull it out of the ground.
That sounds quite hard to do, but actually it pulls fairly easily.
It doesn't root very deeply.
The heather has to be quite long.
I always measure it by the length of my arm. If it's roughly the length of my arm that's fine.
if it's longer that's even better because if you start you want the longer stuff, and when you get closer to the top, the shorter stuff might be alright.
Most landowners are quite happy because they also have an interested in this.
The might be old local families, who want to see the heritage be preserved.
Or we might go to RSPB or the Forestry Commission and they're keen to help us as well.
It's good for them too, to work together.
We've taken the heather thatch from the RSPB.
It was an area where they wanted to have a regeneration of forest.
Us taking the heather gave them the young seedlings a chance to grow better because the competitive plant was gone.
In the case of going to the Forestry Commission, we took it from the edges of the roads.
This benefited them because they have to come with machine to try to keep the heather down.
Once we have the materials, what we do with our roofs is we have a sub thatch, quite often made from broom.
The good thing about the broom is that it's very easy to cut and it grows on our site.
It is very quick to thatch with.
Then you have to cover it.
The broom by itself doesn't last long.
It lasts maybe 2-3 years, then it starts to degrade quite rapidly.
The heather lasts roughly ten years.
The process then is that we don't take the thatch off, we thatch on top of the old layer.
They did a study on a house in Perth and discovered there were at least 7 layers of thatch on the house.
So you can build up and up.
The good thing is, after 10 years the heather is so dried out and brittle that doesn't weigh much any more.
But it is still a good matrix for putting the next thatch on.
We have round needle here.
I've already put two bundles on.
So what we do is we stick the needle into the last bundle and try to catch the layer underneath.
The needle comes out, and that gives you the space you want to thatch.
You now select your thatch. You want to find the longer bits 1st.
You try to catch the heather stalks with the string.
So you just put it on.
While you thatch, you have to make sure you have an even surface.
You go along, until you have roughly the space you want to thatch.
Then you go up the way.
When you go up the way, you start to cover the thicker branches of the layer underneath.
What you get is a kind of even surface, that almost looks like a fur coat.
All you want to see are these thinner branches here.
It's not just to make sure it's waterproof.
It's also from an aesthetic point of view.
It gives it a good look.
You try to use everything, because you went to the trouble to pull it out of the ground.
The good thing about heather thatching is that the heather has little hooks and branches.
So it kind of hooks into each other.
It doesn't slip down, even on a steep roof like that.
It's quite secure.
Now I've got some string here.
Now I just have to find the end of the needle again.
The needle has a little hole in the tip.
I pull the needle out so the string comes out of that side.
And then all I have to do is pull it tight.
So what we want is a tightness so there's a nice tension on it.