You need true grit and determination to be a fencer, especially in the unforgiving terrain of the far north of Scotland.
Mark Blair of MFence, a contracting business based in Lairg, exhibits these traits in spades, together with an enthusiasm for the job that is positively infectious.
When I spoke to him in early January he was ploughing on through the pain barrier after a fall a few days earlier. Nothing was going to stop him. There’s a job to be done!
Lairg is a village in central Sutherland about 40 miles south of the far north coast and is a fascinating detour from the well-trodden (and highly recommended!) North Coast 500 route that encompasses some of the finest scenery you could ever wish to witness.
Inspirational as it may be, it’s a tough landscape for anyone working on the land and Mark, 35 this year, has been grafting in these parts for the past six years.
Mark explained: “I moved up here from Perthshire to be with my wife who is from Lairg originally and I have settled in very well.
“It was a challenge at first. You don’t want to step on anyone’s toes as there’s a lot of very good and established fencing contractors up around the Highlands, but after completing 400m of stock fencing on my first job here, I was up and running with a number of jobs arriving at my door on the back of it.
“It’s about 90% agricultural, stock and forestry fencing together with a fair bit of timber garden fencing thrown in on behalf of farmers, estates and commercial groundworks firms. My job occasionally takes me as far south as Aviemore and right across and up to the glorious west and north coasts, although most of the work I have is no more than a 20-40 minute drive away.
“No two jobs are the same. One week you could be working on 1000 metres of stock fencing, and the next job could be a deer fence either near a road or miles out on a hill. There’s a wide variety of fencing work to be done in a region where nature is always in charge.
“There’s a lot of rocky, hard ground around here and that’s where the machinery I’ve got comes into its own,” added Mark, who runs a Quickfencer on a smaller Kubota tracked dumper and timber trailer and a Morooka MST 300VD tracked dumper with a Wragg commander XL equipped with the Rock spike and the heavier hammer as well as a quad bike and various fencing trailers set up for each job at hand.
Mostly working as a one-man band these days, Mark added: “I’m very lucky with the equipment I have. It lets me do the job that would normally require at least 2 or 3 workers. There’s plenty of good fencers around, so on larger jobs I usually sub-contract and bring in hired help when needed.
“I’ve had full-time employees over the years, but now I’m just going for the more simple approach and working on my own for the time being whilst maintaining a very busy work schedule.
“The biggest challenge is time and finding that work-life balance. We’ve got two young children, and I’m always mindful of the importance of spending as much time with them as possible, whilst maintaining a business that provides a crucial service to so many good folks around here.
“Few truly appreciate the hard work and dedication that goes into this line of work. The planning and logistics that takes place behind the scenes can sometimes be taken for granted. There’s always people who think you can just rock up and deliver a fence just like that, but every contractor knows that there’s a lot more to this job.
“The key to my success is to get the foundations right before finishing a quality fence that will last for many years to come.
“That said, it’s a good life, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Whatever the weather throws at you and no matter how difficult the landscape, I never lose sight of the fact that I’m a lucky man.
“You’re only as good as your last job, which is motivation enough to ensure you maintain consistently high standards. Word travels fast in places like this. It’s so important to have a quality approach to everything you do.
“It’s a constant learning curve, and there’s a lot of older contractors around here with more experience than me. I have a lot of respect for them, with many carrying on to a ripe old age,” concluded Mark.
Highland grit and determination really are the hallmarks of this particular contractor who will continue to make his Mark on this spectacular scenery for decades to come.
Article republished with permission from: Fencing News
Published in the Our People section in WIRED Issue 72 / MARCH 2024 by Fencing Contractors Association NZ
