The project has attracted considerable interest in the architectural and engineering communities and has won a number of awards including the RIAS, Edinburgh Architectural Association and the Scottish Design Awards.

It was also shortlisted for the Doolan Award as one of Scotland’s buildings of the year.

Designed by Edinburgh architects Konishi Gaffney, the building is a showcase for James Jones’s own timber products and for timber construction in general.

As well as the chance to see the building and the sawmill operation, Dr Dan Ridley-Ellis, head of the Centre for Wood Science and Technology at Napier University, gave attendees a talk on the structural properties of UK timber, which included the principles of timber grading and making the most of British production. He was supported by Abel and Grant from James Jones Timber Systems Division.

Rob MacKenna, general manager south operations, said: “We’ve really enjoyed welcoming guests to our site today. We as a company are keen to engage with our supply chain stakeholders to encourage the use of C16 timber throughout the industry and to remove any barriers in preventing UK timber being specified in construction.

“All of the architects and engineers we’ve met today are already passionate about utilising wood in renovation and new build projects and it’s been great to open the dialogue on identifying opportunities to use more of the UK timber resource in these applications.”