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[markfree]

Again thanks for all the replies - didn't know there were so many oofer roofers

Yes I guess the best and long term solution is to vastly improve the ventilation in the loft and to possibly lay more insulation as I guess it's not thick enough.

Cheers

[Marks DTM Calib]

Thats the likely cause.

Building regs state the level of ventilation required (Although Part F covers home ventilations, roof ventilation is covered in Part C Note; the scottis spec is pretty much the same except the doc content is pretty useless!).

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDFs_ADC_2004.pdf

Given the house age, this is likely to be in the form of eaves or soffit vents and there are 2 common reasons why the ventilation is compromised.

1) Insulation has been installed tight up against the felt which has restricted the air flow. various things are available to sort this e.g.:

http://www.harcon.co.uk/eaves/index.aspx

Note: although idealy installed during construction, these can be pushed into place from inside.

2) Plastic facias have been fitted and no vents included.

Again, easy to overcome by fitting vents to the soffit part of the facias.

Another option is to add some air bricks to the gable ends (assuming you have them )

[Matchless]

Traditional Scottish construction uses rough-sawn sarking boards on top of the rafters, then counter battens and normal tiling battens. Ventilation is by gaps in the sarking. Damp sarking indicates damaged tiles / ridge problems or flashing problems.
If a roofing felt layer is present over the sarking then there must be eaves and ridge vents to keep the roof space free of condensation.
More recent construction has a breather membrane between the sarking and counter battens, there is still a need for eaves and ridge vents.