The Mingary Castle restoration blog was written by Jon Haylett, who lives in the local village of Kilchoan. Now that restoration is almost complete Holly and Chris Bull will take over to report on bringing the Castle back to life.

Thursday 26 June 2014

Attic Rooms Take Shape

From the battlements first thing this morning one could watch two very different fishing boats working the waters to the east of the castle.  The one on the right is a small creel boat, setting creels - lobster pots - to catch prawns (langoustines), while the one on the left is a coble, a boat with a traditional design for catching the wild salmon which still run along this coast.

Progress in the castle continues to be rapid.  On the north range, the wooden roof plates, the timbers which run along the tops of the stone walls to take the roof, are in position, while....

....the floor joist supports, which will carry the wooden floors of the attic level, are being fixed in place.  As can be seen, the attic itself appears quite a small space, but will be one of the best areas of the house as it will have dormer windows which look out over the battlements and across the Sound of Mull.

Within the courtyard, the stonemasons are hard at work rebuilding the inner courses of the walls up to battlement level.  This stonework looks extremely good but the plan at present is to cover the exposed interior of the curtain walls with a layer of plaster.

In this picture we're looking at upper part of the west range, the building that used to house, at various stages, a kitchen, stable, forge, storage areas and sleeping accommodation.  The plan for its future is that it will become accommodation for the housekeeper who will look after the clients who rent the castle on a weekly basis.

4 comments:

  1. That doesn't look like raw lumber. Has it been sealed to keep it from absorbing moisture from the stone?

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  2. I've enjoyed this blog right from the start, but while following the progress on the castle closely I've been distracted by the first picture here; is that a sea eagle (or goldie) against the hillside in the centre of the picture?

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  3. Memoryman, I'll have to ask about that and get back to you

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  4. Littlegrebe, yes, noticed the bird but not at the time I took the picture, so am not sure what it is, though it looks like an eagle and is where we've seen several sea eagles.

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