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A mobile crane holds a large beech stem motionless in mid-air above a wet slate rooftop in Inverness, a climber in hi-vis orange visible in the remaining crown under an overcast sky.
  • SECTION WT 1.9t
  • PICK POINT 14.2m
  • CRANE RADIUS 18m
  • DROP ZONE CLEAR
  • LANDED 09:42

Hold Fast Tree Work — crane-assisted dismantles, Inverness

The jobs others turn down, taken and landed.

Tree surgeons in Inverness who plan the lift before the saw starts. Two tonnes over your roof — measured, held, slewed and set down where the drawing said it would be.

Get a lift planned Read the method

89 Google reviews — 4.6 held fast

The method — one job, start to finish

Anatomy of a dismantle

“Crane-assisted tree removal” sounds like jargon until you watch one morning of it. One beech, one crane, one drawing — here is the whole method, in the order it happens in your garden.

  1. 01Survey & lift plan

    A surveyor stands at a garden gate holding a marked-up lift plan on a clipboard, measuring a mature beech tree with a laser rangefinder.

    RAMS ISSUED · RADIUS 18m

    We measure the tree, the targets under it and the ground the crane will stand on. The lift plan is drawn before anyone leaves the yard.

  2. 02Crane set

    A crane outrigger foot is lowered onto a timber mat on a driveway while the operator crouches to check the level.

    OUTRIGGERS ON MATS · LEVEL CHECKED

    The crane arrives sized for the job, not the driveway. Outriggers go down on mats, and nothing slews until the plan says so.

  3. 03Pick point rigged

    Gloved hands set a lifting sling around a marked pick point on a rain-wet beech stem, climbing rope clipped nearby.

    PICK POINT 14.2m · SLING CHECKED

    The climber sets the sling exactly where the drawing marks it, and the crane takes up the slack before a tooth touches wood.

  4. 04Cut and held

    A climber braced in a beech crown finishes a cut while the crane line above already carries the section's weight.

    SECTION WT 1.9t · HELD

    The weight is on the hook before the cut is finished. The section never falls — it hangs, dead still, exactly where it grew.

  5. 05Slewed clear

    A cut beech section hangs from the crane hook as it travels clear over a wet slate rooftop, seen from the garden below.

    OVER THE RIDGE · STEADY

    The section travels over the roof and the fence in clear air, on a path agreed before the saw started that morning.

  6. 06Landed and processed

    A felled beech tree section stands in a dirt and leaf-covered forest floor within a taped boundary, while a groundworker in high-visibility gear handles a lifting sling.

    LANDED 09:42 · CLEARED SAME DAY

    Down in the taped drop zone, chipped and cleared the same day. The lawn keeps its stripes.

When the crane is the right call

See the jobs we take
Confined gardens
No room to fell and no room to drop. The crane lifts everything out over the house instead.
Dead or unstable stems
Wood too far gone to climb safely takes its weight on the hook instead of on the climber.
Targets below
Conservatories, garages, greenhouses, a neighbour's fence. When everything under the tree matters, sections leave by air.

The work — framed by difficulty

The jobs others turn down

Everything we take on gets the same treatment as the hard jobs: a written method, certified kit, and a tidy site by the time you're home. Even when yours is “only” a crown reduction.

A mobile crane at full radius carries a tree stem above the ridge line of a terraced Inverness street while three crew in hi-vis watch from marked positions.

Crane-assisted dismantles

Our specialism, and the reason people ring us from well outside Inverness: crane-assisted tree removal for trees that cannot be felled or rigged down safely. The tree leaves by air, section by section, on a written lift plan.

  • LIFT PLAN — APPOINTED PERSON
  • ACCESS — ROAD OR DRIVE FOR CRANE PADS
  • TYPICAL — ONE DAY
A climber lowers a rigged limb on ropes past a greenhouse in a confined back garden while a groundworker controls the line.

Sectional felling over targets

Sectional tree felling for tight Highland gardens — rigged, lowered and landed piece by piece when there's no room to drop anything at all.

  • ACCESS — CLIMBER ONLY
  • RIGGING PLAN IN THE RAMS
  • TYPICAL — 1–2 DAYS
A crew in hi-vis assesses a storm-blown pine lying across a driveway at night, lit by vehicle headlights in the rain.

Storm damage, answered

Emergency tree surgeons for Inverness — storm damage and dangerous tree make-safe, answered within the hour, day or night. Safe first, tidy after.

  • CALLS ANSWERED — WITHIN THE HOUR
  • DAY OR NIGHT
  • MAKE-SAFE FIRST
A climber high in a beech crown makes a measured reduction cut, with one side of the crown already reduced to an even, natural shape.

Crown reduction & thinning

Crown reduction in Inverness to BS 3998 — measured cuts to a stated spec, so the tree keeps its shape and you keep your light.

  • SPEC — BS 3998
  • TYPICAL — HALF TO ONE DAY
  • NO TOPPING, EVER
A stump grinder cuts down a stump in a small front garden, wood chips arcing behind the guard, with a narrow gate behind.

Stump grinding & clearance

Stump grinding in Inverness with narrow-access kit, plus full site clearance. All waste chipped and gone the same day — we don't leave you a second job.

  • ACCESS — NARROW-GATE GRINDER
  • FINISH — BELOW GRADE
  • WASTE — CLEARED SAME DAY

Also on the books — hedge & windbreak work · woodland, estate & commercial tree surgery across the Highlands

Credentials — verifiable, on request, on the day

The paperwork that holds

Adrenaline fully under control. Here's the arithmetic.

Nobody should have to take nerve on trust. Every line below is real, current, and yours to ask for before a single saw starts.

Public liability
£5,000,000
Method statement & risk assessment
Before every climb
Crew & lifting kit
NPTC · LOLER certified
Lift planning
Appointed person — BS 7121
Waste carrier
Licensed · cleared same day
Trading since
2016
A clipboard holding a marked-up lift plan rests on a crane outrigger pad beside a LOLER-tagged lifting sling and a radio clipped to a climbing harness.
READ BEFORE THE FIRST CUT

Job records — Inverness & around

Landed where the plan said

Three recent lifts from streets like yours. The numbers on each plate are the job's own — species, height, sections, and the minute it landed.

Record 01 — Culduthel, Inverness

Landed as drawn

BEFORE A very tall beech tree leans over a glass conservatory in a Culduthel garden, its rain-heavy crown filling the sky above the roof.
AFTER A suburban house with a conservatory and a foreground of cleared muddy ground with stacked timber and logs.

BEECH · 22m14 SECTIONS6 HRSDROP ZONE 3m × 4mLANDED 14:30

Three firms quoted around this beech before it reached us. The crane stood on the road; all fourteen sections came back over the conservatory they used to shade. The taped square of lawn was the only thing that took any weight.

Record 02 — Crown, Inverness

Landed as drawn

BEFORE A Scots pine leans hard over a garden fence in the Crown area of Inverness, its root plate lifting the lawn after a storm.
AFTER A neat stack of cut pine rounds rests on bare soil in front of a wooden fence, flanked by shrubs.

SCOTS PINE · 17m9 SECTIONS4 HRSDROP ZONE — DRIVEWAYLANDED 11:50

A winter storm left this pine leaning hard over the neighbour's fence. Made safe the morning it was reported, then dismantled in nine held sections. The fence never found out.

Record 03 — Nairn

Landed as drawn

BEFORE A dead, leafless elm towers over a slate roof from a tight rear lane in Nairn, hemmed in by stone walls and wheelie bins.
AFTER The same Nairn rear lane after the removal: the roofline clear against the sky and elm logs stacked neatly at the lane end.

ELM (DEAD) · 19m11 SECTIONS5 HRSDROP ZONE — REAR LANELANDED 13:15

Dead elm, too brittle to climb, a slate roof directly below and a rear lane barely wide enough for the chipper. Every section took its weight on the hook instead of on a climber. Lane swept by early afternoon.

Your tree, your street, the same drawing.

Get yours on paper

Start the method

Get a plan drawn up

The first step isn't a chainsaw — it's a site visit and a sheet of paper. Tell us what the tree is doing and we'll come and measure the rest. Free across Inverness and the surrounding Highlands. You get a written quote with a method summary — no pressure, and no vague day rates.

Job sheet — first draft

No obligation

Free site visit. Written quote with method summary. No pressure.