A Change in Emphasis

Many thanks to Iain Thornber who took these aerial pictures of the castle on Sunday while passing in a helicopter.  They give a good idea of the huge progress that has been made on the exterior work.

Iain was fortunate that day with the weather.  When I walked down to the castle today for my weekly visit....

....we were in the middle of the third storm this week, this one a southeasterly gale blowing straight into the sea-side of the castle.  The picture gives no idea of the banshee howling of the wind as it passed through the scaffolding, nor of the piercing cold of 40mph raindrops.

It's unsurprising, then, that there's been a significant change in emphasis in the building work: most of the work is now going on inside the castle buildings. However, they have managed to complete more of the flagstones on the walkway round the curtain walls.  In this picture, taken from above the main gate, we're looking straight down the steps which lead to the west range, and can see the neat little steps which lead up from the 'landing' to the main walkway round the top of the battlements.  These didn't seem to exist before, and have been added at Jean-Paul Ashley's suggestion.

Immediately below those steps, and out of sight in the previous picture, is an entrance into the west curtain wall, where Damien is currently working, inserting concrete joists to hold up its roof.  Immediately below his feet is a vertical drop down to the castle's small dungeon, the only entrance to what must have been a dark, dank place.

To Damien's left is a short, narrow passage leading to the eastern garderobe, where....

....someone kindly obliged with a demonstration of how it would have been used.  With the wind in the east, this, the western garderobe, would have been in use today.

Work has started on fitting the windows into the east range but....

....most of the workmen are now in the north range, where preparations for the arrival of the first panels in a few weeks' time are speeding ahead.  With so much joinery work coming up, a new joiner has been employed, and there will be more shortly.  Dean Cunningham is from Crossroads, near Skipton in Yorkshire.  While Dean has worked in Scotland before, he's never worked on a project like this, which he described as "unique".

The change also sees the arrival of new equipment: this magnificent machine is a chop saw.  Beyond it is one of the lancet windows, and another of the areas that it currently being worked on is the preparations for the panelling around them.  Each will be covered by a shutters, behind which the window will stand in a surround of the original stonework.