From its humble beginnings, Carve Carrbridge has grown to become the place to be if you’re a competitive chainsaw carver. Ahead of its 20th year, we’ve taken a look back at past events, with the help of the people at the heart of it all.
THIS month (September) sees the 20th Carve Carrbridge, the Scottish Open Chainsaw Carving competition, take place, when a field of home and international contestants gathers to entertain the crowds. This event started with humble beginnings, but has grown to be one that is widely respected in the carving community. Forestry Journal now looks back on the past years of competitions.
2003
As official photographer, James Ross has experienced pretty much all of these events. He has been a great assistance to me since I started covering Carve Carrbridge back in 2015. So, it was to him that I turned to go back in time and look at the previous 19 years of events. Tom Jones was, in fact, the driving force behind the setting up and running of the very first edition in 2003, which was simply called ‘The Gathering’. Sadly, Tom died in 2018, but I was grateful to Allyson, his wife, and daughter, Catherine, for their help in explaining how things started and how they developed in the first few years.
They also allowed me access to their collection of pictures and memorabilia from this time.
Catherine explained how the event came into being.
“The then Village Hall Committee was approached by the World Porridge Making Competition Committee with regard to its upcoming 10th anniversary, and asked if they had any ideas to do something a bit special. It was my dad that came up with the chainsaw carving idea, having seen a competition in Canada on TV and having noticed a carving of a stag in Aviemore.
“Various ideas were thrown around about, but the carve idea was the one that was liked the best. Danny Fullerton, at Landmark, was approached; he was enthusiastic and fully on board right from the start. He suggested approaching Pete Bowsher, who was a carver involved in other carving events, for assistance.”
Many of the competition rules and regulations that are still in place today were introduced then. These included a prize for the winner, which then was called the Landmark Silver Saw trophy. The sculptures were to remain the property of the carvers and, if they wanted, could be sold at auction, and each carver was given four hours to produce their carving. The date of the competition was set the weekend before the English Open competition, at Sandringham, in a bid to attract international carvers.
Catherine remembers that being a good decision.
“We found that many extended their stay in the UK to participate in both. On the day of the event, Hendy Pollock, from Speyside Sound, was the host. Pete Bowsher won the first prize of £75 and the trophy with a koala bear clinging to a tree trunk, and Andy Maclachlan was second with the carving of a lady.”
2004
2004 saw James start to take pictures of the event, albeit as a member of the crowd and, as he describes it, with “a wee point-and-shot camera”. This year saw John Gordon & Sons supply the logs and Landmark remained the main sponsor. Catherine explained that prize money was increased to £150 for the first prize, £100 for the second, and £75 for third.
“The second year also saw our first lady carver, Jayne Sparks from South Wales, and the introduction of a Novice Carving Competition with a prize of £50. Pete Bowsher returned and won with Australian Kevin Guilders in second place. This second year also saw well-respected USA and English Open champion carver Bob King take part. Local tree surgeon Mark Bishop won the novice prize.”
2005
The introduction of a Scotland v USA team event was one of the highlights of 2005, with Bob King accepting this challenge and keeping it under wraps until the event.
“None of them knew that this was coming!” Catherine remembers. “Before the competition, a workshop was held at Dalrachney House, where the tips and tricks of the trade were taught. Alice and Geoff Buttress, local artists, attended this and Alice that year went on to pick up the Novice Carving Competition prize. Andy Maclachlan won the People’s Choice award, another which had been added to the event with the selection being made by those attending on the day; he was also placed third.
“While Pete won the individual, the team prize went to the USA, with Bob King also being judged runner-up to Pete. I had learned a bit more about Microsoft that year, so the brochure for the event had an upgrade!
“Dad was there for several more years. He and my mum also provided free accommodation in the bunkhouse for the carvers.”
2006
James’s pictures of 2006 start to show some more of the Carve Carrbridge traditions which remain to this day. The carvers being piped into the carving arena and a Quick-Carving event taking place. There was also a cross cutting saw competition and a range of entertainment for the crowds that were now flocking to the event. This year that included belly dancers!
James said: “This was the first year that I covered the event from start to finish, and it was won by Angie Polglaze, an Australian lady carver. She never returned.”
2007
The weather this year was good and once more Pete Bowsher picked up the top prize. There was a wide range of carvings created on the day, with many eagles – ranging from being in a tree, to half-wingspan and then to full-wingspan creations – benches and seats, a pair of swans and even a turkey. Simon O’Rourke created a carving of a man tossing a caber.
2008
The off-field entertainment included axe-throwing and archery. There were five lady carvers and a lovely Carve Carrbridge picture of all of the carvers to admire in James’s portfolio of pictures. Yet again, there was another win for Pete.
2009
2009 was the year James feels the calibre of carvers taking part rose as the competition was becoming better recognised. There were 26 carvers in total in the event from Scotland, England, Wales, the USA, Germany, Italy, and Finland.
James’s pictures show that Bob King, with his iconic Cougar carving, won the event; I know that this carving is still talked about to the present day at Carve Carrbridge contests. Mike Burns, with a stunning dragonfly carving, must have run Bob a close second; he was also the People’s Choice. Third place went to England’s Tim Burgess with a Golden Eagle, while the Best Newcomer category went to a German carver called Michael Tamoszus, a name that features a bit in the later years’ history of Carve Carrbridge
“Bob’s cougar was the first time many of us had seen something different from a bear or an eagle,” James said. “There was a big gasp from the crowd when Mike put the wings into the body he had been carving, up to then, no one knew what it was going to be.”
2010/11
A new decade saw a wide range of carvers and different carvings produced, ranging from a wonderful-looking golden eagle with a full wingspan, to a Viking, a stag, a woodsman and winner Ian Chalmers’ ‘four bears on a horizontal log’. Ian had become a regular carver by then and this was the first of three consecutive years of winning Carve Carrbridge.
James did not cover 2010, but he was back for 2011 and remembers an alligator carving by American Tim Klock and Bruce ‘Thor’ Thorsteinson producing a carving of the famous Carrbridge Old Packhorse Bridge. Ian Chalmers won with his ‘Scottish Totem Pole’.
“Car parking was becoming an issue due to the success of the event and, while bus transfers were in place, use was made of an area that was being used as a yard. The other interesting fact about this year was that the BBC Landward presenter Euan McIlwraith attended the event and was game enough to do some carving himself, taking part in the Quick Carve!”
2012
Ian Chalmers completed his hat-trick with an interesting carving he called ‘Early Morning Alarm Call’. He described it as a fox getting into a hen run and chasing a hen, with a pig looking over the fence. This carving achieved the highest auction price. For James, part of the challenge of being the photographer of Carve Carrbridge events, back then and still today, is being available to capture the whole event, but the hardest of all is trying to organise all the carvers at the end for a ‘group’ picture!
2013
Pete Bowsher was back to being the winner with a ‘Woodsman’ carving, something that has become a bit of a trademark of his. Tim Klock came up with another interesting carving, that of a Harp and Barrel, while Craig ‘Steeley’ Steele produced a Gruffalo. Carve Carrbridge was now well established as a major chainsaw carving competition.
2014
A year that saw a lot of rain. There was yet another win for Pete Bowsher, this time with a carving of a ‘Cowboy’. This success meant he had won the event seven times in the first 12 years of its running. Throw in Ian Chalmers with three in a row during the same era, and Carve Carrbridge was pretty much ‘their’ event!
2015
2015 was the first year Forestry Journal covered the event and I was able to witness a great day of carving along with 3,000 other spectators. Meeting and talking to Pete Bowsher before the contest, I was surprised that such an accomplished carver and multiple past winner admitted to having nerves before it all kicked off. Bruce ‘Thor’ Thorsteinson described Carve Carrbridge to me as “the drag race of chainsaw carving events!”.
Pete won the event for the third year in a row with his carving called ‘Fish fight’, which was of two eagles fighting in mid air over a fish.
2016
A significant year for the event. An international carver picked up the coveted top prize and was able to lift the Claymore sword, stopping the success of Scotland-based carvers Pete Bowsher and Ian Chalmers. Wladek Ligocki, from Poland, was that carver, with his carving ‘Beggar’. Wladek also picked up the Carvers’ Choice and Pete took the People’s Choice. New carvers have always been attracted to the event, and that year Sue O’ Sullivan, Jonathan Sherwood and Ian Williams carved for the first time.
James remembers that year there was a very high standard of carving by the competitors, making it difficult for the judges, who are all local people with a connection to art or forestry or some combination of both.
2017
The trend of an international winners continued in the form of Raimondas Uzdravis, who also won Best New Entrant and Carvers’ Choice. His carving was called ‘My Trained Dragon’, and he had kept the crowd guessing all day as to just what his carve was all about. It was only very near to the end of the competition that many finally understood.
James recalls the crowd’s reaction: “There was a big gasp from the audience when Raimondas was finished, and the dragon went from being vertical to being able to move up and down!”
2018
A World Cup year in football and, although Germany did not have success in that, German carver Michael Tamoszus did in that year’s Carve Carrbridge. He was judged the winner with his wonderful carving ‘Girl in the wind’ and he picked up the Carvers’ and People’s Choice awards. Rain once more fell all around Carrbridge but not on the village itself. The logs supplied, that year by BSW from Boat of Garten, were Douglas fir and not the usual Sitka.
There were some firsts that year; the first carver from South America, in the form of Arian Bois, and a Guinness World Record holder in the form of John Hayes. John picked up the award for a Viking sword carved from a completely fallen Douglas fir back home in Ireland. Martin Kalman, who in the past had been the member of an opera choir, picked up the double of third place and Best New Entrant awards while Pete Bowsher was once more a runner-up.
2019
Lightning struck twice and the Scottish monopoly was replaced by a fifth year in a row of international carvers winning the event. Michael Tamoszus, with his ‘Girl with a Lantern’ carving, won for the second consecutive year, and the second and third places went to Pete Bowsher and Martin Kalman, the same order as in 2018. This series of events possibly shows that Carve Carrbridge had gained an international pedigree.
2020
One word for this year was COVID. Like many things throughout the UK and across the world, Carve Carrbridge was impacted by the pandemic and did not run. Instead, with a lot of creativity and support from the carvers for the event, it went virtual. The carvers carved at their home bases and, using time-lapsed videoing, submitted their carves to the judging panel. During the day that was designated the ‘Virtual Carve Carrbridge’ event, there was a series of online activity.
Around the usual time the results would normally be announced, well-known Carve Carrbridge MC, Graham Allsop, appeared online, and announced them. He confirmed a Bowsher as the winner, but not Pete this time – his son Sam.
2021/22
A decision was taken not to run the event in 2021 and therefore, by the time the carvers and crowds had gathered at Carrbridge on the 3rd of September 2022, it had been three years since that last carving competition had been held there. The crowds once more flocked through the gates and the weather was good. As a reflection of the world situation, which, while still having a Covid hangover, was now caught up with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the carvers’ t-shirts had the colours of the Ukrainian flag on them.
Perhaps not surprisingly, in a post-Covid world, there were only two international carvers, but in keeping with the Carve Carrbridge tradition, there were six new carvers to the event. There were also two ‘new’ TV carving celebrities, in the form of Sam Bowsher and Chris Wood, both of whom had taken part on the Discovery Canada carving reality show A Cut Above. Both, in fact, were placed at this year’s Carve Carrbridge Competition.
Chris was third, following on from his runners-up success in the 2020 Virtual Carve, and Sam was adjudged the winner, to make it two in a row!
2023
What of this year? It will be a challenge for Sam to see if he can emulate his dad and Ian Chalmers in delivering three successes in a row.
Carve Carrbridge will take place at the Carrbridge Sports Field on Saturday, September 2.
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