Ireland’s Minister for Housing, Local Government and Planning has toured Glennon Brothers’ £18 million Alexanders Timber Design facility in Irvine, putting timber frame construction front and centre of St Patrick’s Day celebrations. The visit by Minister John Cummins is part of the Irish Government’s St Patrick’s Day Global Outreach programme, which sends ministers to deepen economic ties each March.
Cummins walked the North Ayrshire plant late last week, along with ATD Managing Director Jim Patterson and Glennon Brothers joint managing director Mike Glennon. And Cummins used the occasion to point directly to numbers: Ireland delivered 36,000 homes last year — a 20 per cent increase — with 70 per cent of all scheme houses built via modern methods of construction, predominantly timber frame.
“Scotland and Ireland have built a strong reputation for innovation in timber frame construction and modern methods of housebuilding,” Cummins said. “Facilities such as Alexanders Timber Design show how this expertise can help deliver sustainable homes at scale.”
As it stands, around 95 per cent of new homes north of the border use timber-frame structures, compared with roughly 12 per cent across the rest of the United Kingdom. The Irvine plant draws material from its sister sawmill in Troon, using robotics, digital design systems and precision engineering to push finished product directly into that pipeline.
It comes as the facility marks less than a year since Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, cut the ribbon in April 2025 on what has been billed as the UK’s most technologically advanced timber-frame manufacturing plant.
Founded in Longford, Ireland, in 1913, Glennon Brothers is a third-generation family business operating four Scottish sites — Irvine, Troon, East Lothian and Invergordon — employing more than 350 people and ranking among the largest Irish employers in the country. Mike Glennon, joint managing director, used the visit to outline the company’s guiding principle.
“Our approach is built around the principle ‘from forest to front door’, using homegrown timber to manufacture high-quality building products that support the delivery of sustainable homes,” he said. And Glennon went further: “Scotland has long been a leader in timber frame construction. There’s a huge opportunity for the rest of the UK to learn from the expertise that exists here, particularly as the industry looks for new ways to deliver homes more efficiently and sustainably.”
