Today

Harvesters

• All four of our harvesters are John Deeres and are continuously maintained and kept up-to-date to achieve our production goals. 

Forwarders

• All five of our John Deere forwarders are also serviced regularly and kept in line with the latest editions. 

The good ol' days

Eamon Flaherty Timber’s journey didn’t always involve modern machinery. Back in the 1980s, Eamon began with nothing more than a chainsaw, a horse, and a small team of chainsaw operators, traveling the country in search of work.

The first leap came in the early '90s with the introduction of a county and winch, which gradually replaced the horses, though the work still required significant manpower.

Then came the forwarders, a game-changer for everyone. We started with a Muir Hill tractor converted into a forwarder with a trailer on the back and a crane mounted on the roof. It wasn't ideal, but it marked the beginning of progress, much like many of our past and future ventures. Eventually, we upgraded to our first purpose-built forwarder, the Bruinette 578, signaling significant improvement.

By the late '90s, our first harvester arrived on the scene. It wasn’t new, but it was capable of cutting as much as 2-3 men in a day—when it was kept running smoothly. The Nokka harvester, an ex-Coillte machine, is still parked in the field today, though only remnants remain. From that point on, everything changed in the woods—for us, at least. This marked the beginning of a rapid evolution, with one harvester after another, forwarders following suit, and new fleets added along the way.

Some of the old photos can be viewed below, depicting the old machinery and one of the horses.