Back in May of this year, before any work started, some of the courtyard windows in the north range were in such a precarious state that they had had to be blocked up to prevent whole sections of the front wall of the building collapsing. Historic Scotland has given permission for these windows to be stabilised, and some of the men from Ashley-Thompson, the main contractor, were working on them on Thursday when I went to visit the site.
This picture looks from the interior at the lintel of one of the windows which is in reasonable condition. Behind the window's carved sandstone lintel and jamb, the walls are over a metre thick, and they're held up by oak timbers. In many of the windows some, if not all the oak has gone.
Temporary wooden lintels are installed to hold up the wall while the rotten timber is removed.
Then, working from the outside inwards, concrete lintels are place across, with a layer of damp proof course above them. Mortar is then rammed in above the DPC.
The new concrete lintels of this window are all in place. The DPC hangs down inside the sandstone surround, and the new window will be put in behind it.
Many thanks to H. for explaining all this to me. Any errors are mine.
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