A Castlebar tree surgeon has finished in the top six in the Independent National Tree Climbing Championships at Birr Castle, Co Offaly.
Michael Winstanley, originally from Auchincruive, Ayr in Scotland, is married to Castlebar woman Claire Parsons and they live locally.
Mr Winstanley started climbing trees at the age of 21 through Kilmarnock College in Scotland where he gained his national certificate in tree management and his National Proficiency Test Council. He then moved to Sweden where he worked as a tree surgeon for two years.
From here he travelled to Australia to further his skills which proved a huge test as conditions were vastly different to those he had grown accustomed to in Sweden where temperatures dropped to as low as minus 25ºC, while maximum working temperatures in Australia were 40ºC.
It was in Darwin that the couple met. Mr Winstanley took part in the 2007 South Australia Tree Climbing Championship where he took first place.
Next stop was New Zealand before the couple returned to live in Ireland in 2008. Due to the economic downturn Mr Winstanley went to work throughout Europe and Scandinavia as a subcontracting tree surgeon where he also participated in tree climbing competitions taking fifth in the Swedish Tree Climbing competition in 2009.
He then returned to Scotland to undertake his degree and moved back to Mayo in 2010 to get married and set up his own company Mayo Tree Services, while continuing his degree online.
The first independent Irish National Tree Climbing Championship was organised by the Irish Tree Care Association with prizes sponsored by Husqvarna. The competition took place on a group of mature oak trees and was run over two days. Thirty five competitors competed in the preliminaries on the Friday with only six making it through to the Masters’ Challenge on the Saturday and Mr Winstanley was one of those finalists, having finished in second overall on the Friday. His prize was a €750 chainsaw sponsored by Husqvarna.
