Hi all, thanks for the replies so far.
I'll take some pics of the whole tree as it is just now, if weather allows tomorrow.
Just now the other large branch at that damaged section is fine
with regards to stability. But there's that ripped section it's close to, so as mentioned it doesnt look good for it's future, which is a real shame as it looks good and healthy and has been blowing about happily without disaster in the 80 odd mph gales.
The extremely large "branch" that was ripped off fell through the front conifers and used to be behind and above and had been allowed to get like this by the previous owners. Approx 10m-12m high.
So it destroyed a section of the front conifers (The front conifers are approx. 5m high.) that I had to deal with also and this has caused a few gaps that weren't there before and pushed forward a load of branches that were more central (that I'll try to re-route with string at some point). It's not as bad as it could have been though, as it's a corner area it still looks green thankfully.
But have to say I didn't expect to be cutting a tree with a hand saw at 8.30am this morning after 1 and a half hours sleep due to the wind! The amount of branches kicking around that need to be re-cut is unbelievable. And the trunk of the "branch that fell off" can be dealt with at another time, I managed to pull it back through and get it to the ground so there are no other bits still in the front conifers, the trunk of the ripped off branch is probably about 3m to 3.5m diameter of a plate and heavy.
I'm in east ayrshire and as said I'll attempt a few more pics tomorrow. But if whats left needs cut, it's easy compared to what I had to do today.
Cheers
dave