Bespoke Gun Cabinets and Gun Rooms in Scotland
Hand-made gun cabinets and fitted gun rooms, made in our Suffolk workshop and installed across Scotland. Cabinets from £7,000 plus VAT, delivered and installed. Gun rooms from £20,000.
Scotland is not the same as England
Most advice written about gun storage in this country is written for England, and quietly assumes the reader is there. Scotland differs in ways that matter when you are working out what you need.
The central difference is air weapons. Under the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015, air weapons in Scotland require a certificate, and have done since 31 December 2016. There is no equivalent requirement in England and Wales.
For a household with air rifles that is a real practical difference. Storage an English client would give no thought to becomes part of the conversation, and it is a common reason a Scottish commission ends up larger than the client first expected.
Firearms and shot guns themselves remain governed by the Firearms Act 1968, as throughout Great Britain, so the fundamentals are unchanged.
One force, which is simpler
In England there are more than forty territorial forces, each with its own firearms licensing department. In Wales there are four. In Scotland there is one: Police Scotland, formed from the eight regional forces in 2013, administers firearms and air weapon licensing for the whole country.
For a client that is straightforwardly easier. One department, one set of procedures and one approach, whether you are in the Borders or in Sutherland.
It also means our usual practice travels well. We set out the proposed specification in writing and agree it with your firearms enquiry officer before anything is made, so the home visit becomes a confirmation rather than a negotiation.
As anywhere, adequacy is assessed at your address, taking account of the guns, the property and its location. An estate house standing empty half the year is a different proposition from an occupied house in Perth, and the same cabinet may be looked at differently in each.
What we send north
Everything is built to the specification we publish: steel over 2mm throughout the lined carcass, laminated anti-bandit glass from 21.5mm where doors are glazed, folded steel doors with anti-cut pins, five-lever mortice locks to BS 3621, and fixings anchored into masonry.
For a fitted gun room we line the room in steel, clad it in timber, fit a steel firearms door clad to match, and then fit all the joinery and racking. We do not do building work, so the room needs to exist before we arrive.
Where air weapons are held alongside shotguns and rifles, we draw storage for all of it at the outset rather than adding a second cabinet later. It is nearly always cheaper and always tidier.
Distance, and how we handle it
We are at Mickfield in Suffolk, so Scotland is a proper journey, and we would rather be straightforward about that than pretend otherwise.
It begins with photographs, dimensions and your gun list, from which we can give a realistic price before anybody travels. For a single cabinet we can very often work from that alone. For a fitted gun room we will come and survey, because wall construction, the door opening, what sits above the ceiling and any window are not things to establish from a photograph.
The piece is made, finished and fitted out complete in the workshop, then delivered and installed by our own team. We do not hand cabinets to a courier: a gun cabinet has to be bolted to the structure of the building to be adequate, and the fixing is the part everything else depends on.
Travel is in the quoted figure rather than added afterwards. Scottish work is best planned with a little more lead time, particularly if you want something in place before the season.
Older Scottish houses raise the same questions as older houses anywhere, with more emphasis on damp and heating. A sealed, unheated room is very good at putting rust on blued steel, so ventilation is part of the specification rather than an afterthought.
What we make
Glazed cabinets
Laminated anti-bandit glass where the collection is worth seeing.
Solid timber cabinets
Where discretion matters more than display.
Ammunition storage
Separate and lockable, where the certificate requires it.
Fitted gun rooms
Steel lining, timber cladding and a clad firearms door.
Cartridge storage
Wellington chests and drawer banks, matched to the cabinet.
Antiqued finishes
So a new piece sits with older furniture rather than against it.
Questions we are asked
Do air rifles need locking up in Scotland?
Air weapons require a certificate in Scotland, and have since 31 December 2016 under the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015. That is not the case in England and Wales. Certificates carry conditions, so it is worth raising storage with Police Scotland and designing for it from the start.
Is the law otherwise different from England?
Firearms and shot guns are governed by the Firearms Act 1968 throughout Great Britain, so the fundamentals are the same. The practical differences in Scotland are air weapon licensing and the fact that a single force administers everything.
Who do I deal with?
Police Scotland, which administers firearms and air weapon licensing for the whole country. One department and one set of procedures wherever you live, which is simpler than the position south of the border.
Do you actually travel to Scotland?
Yes. We make everything at Mickfield in Suffolk and deliver and install with our own team across the UK. Travel is included in the quoted figure, and Scottish work benefits from a little more lead time.
Can air weapons and shotguns share a cabinet?
They can, and where a household holds both we would generally draw storage for everything at the outset rather than adding a second cabinet later. Whether any particular arrangement is adequate is a matter for your firearms enquiry officer, which is why we agree the specification before we build.
All gun cabinets
What we make, what it costs and how a commission runs.
Fitted gun rooms
Steel lining, timber cladding and a clad firearms door. From £20,000.
What the rules actually say
No law requires a gun cabinet. What the Firearms Rules do require.
Send us your gun list
Send us your gun list and a photograph of the room, and we will come back with a drawing and a price. From £7,000 plus VAT, delivered and installed.
Start a commissionFurther reading: gun room security, and what the rules actually say. Responsibility for the security condition on your certificate rests with you as the certificate holder, and the adequacy of any storage arrangement is a matter for your firearms licensing department.