Javier Goicoa Juango and Jesús María Larrañeta, from the Irati area of Navarra, are past masters in the trade of tablillero shingle-roofer. Wooden shingle roofs have been used traditionally in all sorts of roofing for homes, huts, shelters, chapels, churches, etc. in the Navarran Pyrenees.

Concerned… at the poor condition of the roof of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows in Irati (Navarra), various volunteers and others with an attachment to the area got together to have the building repaired, giving rise to an initiative led by Javier and Jesús María to revive the shingle-roofer’s trade.

Javier and Jesús are experts in the whole process, from making the wooden shingles known as tablillas to laying them on a roof. They make shingles in the manner of their forebears, scrupulously observing every detail of the tradition.

The Irati forest and environs abound with beech, which has exceptional properties for the manufacture of wooden tiles or shingles. The selection of trees is a key stage of the process, determining whether the wood will be suitable and how good the end product will be. Tall, smooth trees are not necessarily best, as the tree must have certain particular qualities. In their selection Javier and Jesús María apply knowledge acquired by experience, for example concerning the terrain. Trees should be in shady, mossy north-facing parts with an ample soil substrate, preferably in sheltered hollows. Those on hilltops are buffeted by wind and less well watered, so the grain of their timber is tougher and less amenable.

Another vital aspect when choosing a tree is age. It should be long-lived, some 120 years old, and have a diameter of at least 45 cm and no more than 60 cm. Lengthways, the trunk should be even, with no sign of twists in the grain. Nor should there be any “blind knots”, so called because they are not apparent at first sight. Javier and Jesús María, through their experience, can detect such knots from the pattern on the bark. To check the quality of the wood they extract a piece of bark from the roots. The series of lines appearing underneath should be long and straight.

Where possible, trees are felled at the end of the moon’s waxing phases, between the first crescent moon of November and the last crescent moon of February, which is when the wood contains least sap. Once the trees have been felled as required, they will be left as they are, and in the spring they will sprout with leaves (albeit less vigorously than standing trees), owing to the small volume of sap remaining in them. Thus the wood is pristine and compact, with all the pores and conduits through which foreign bodies could enter sealed, and accordingly more durable. Depending on their location, beech shingle roofs have been known to last some 50 years. On a well-aired site, the shingles are turned over after 35 years, resulting in a further 15 years of life.

The second stage is the making of shingles. The best time for this is within two months of the sprouting of leaves, when the timber is in optimal condition – workable and with its grain easy to see, helping one to know how to apply tools to it to get the best results. After these two months the timber becomes less manageable: the grain is less visible, tools cut through it less smoothly, the cut surface changes colour, especially in the sun, and the wood hardens very quickly.

A key aspect is that the shingles should remain in their environment, where the tree grew, until they have aged or matured for at least eight or nine months. They should be stacked in a particular way: two pieces of wood are placed on the ground, as evenly as possible, over which the shingles are stacked in twos so as to form squares, so that they rest only on their ends, with the thicker end facing out, leaving space for aeration, in a pile of up to 100 units. Once the stack is complete, a weight is put on top so that any warped shingles will straighten out as they mature.

The tools used remain unchanged. Shingle axes weigh about 1.6 kg and should be as thin as possible so as not to strain the wood as they make wholly straight cuts, and have a thin haft, suited to the user and as short as possible. Two narrow iron wedges and a wooden mallet are also used, so as not to overwork the axes. When one of these breaks, it is remade with wood from the core of the log from which the shingles are cut. The axes need to be very sharp in order to cut through the grain without tearing out chips, making the most of the raw material.

The way shingles are made has not changed over the years, but when they are laid on a roof, rather than the wooden pegs of the same wood used formerly, they are now fitted with coach screws.