The next step for Mingary

So things are changing at Mingary now that the inside is 99% there, we (Chris and Holly) have moved into our office and had the wonderful opportunity to show Jon around. We invited Jon and his wife Gill to come and visit the castle now that most of the furniture is in place, unbelievably this was the first time Gill had seen the castle since the restoration work had got underway! They were accompanied by fellow walker Paul after a stroll East of the castle. Jon is hoping to write up a short booklet about the walk and its interesting historic points.
We would like to say a massive THANK YOU to Jon for the amazing work he has done on the blog as it is now time for him to pass over the reins to us. We just hope we do him proud as his are big boots to fill.

The castle is now equipped with furniture that has been sourced from auction houses and other bits that have been reappointed from other parts of the estate. These two chairs are antiques that have been recovered in a lovely blue tartan.

These plates and cake stands are a particular favourite of Holly's and she can't wait for guest to relax in the lounge with afternoon tea and enjoy them too. Below is some of the hand thrown pottery to be used for breakfast.

With the inside coming along, as with all building projects, the outside is in need of some tidying up. We have started the long job of hand picking all the stones out of the lawn and reseeding it. It may be painstaking but it really is making a difference and we will be telling all the guests about our beautiful lawn. We have been keeping our eyes peeled for treasures but the only thing found so far is on of Sophie's the site dogs bones.

The perks to the being outside is you get to witness some of the best sunsets we have ever seen; our guests are going to be spoilt. This one looks like we are on a Greek island. (although the 5 layers we were wearing might have said different)

And here someone is holding a torch up from behind Ormsaigbeg........its a pretty good life!

Season's Greetings

A Moment to Take Stock

For the first time in two years the castle seemed deserted this morning, with several of the men pulled off the job to organise the movement of the static caravans they've been living in.  So it seemed an appropriate moment to walk round and look at what's been achieved, as well as getting a glimpse of what the place is going to be like when it's finished in six to eight weeks' time.

The paving in the courtyard has been completed in the last week after Caithness Stone Industries Ltd made good their promise to get replacement blocks here as quickly as possible.

When one climbs to the battlements and looks across to the 18th century facade of the north range, it's worth remembering....

....what it looked like almost exactly two years ago, before Ashley Thompson started work.  When this picture was taken, there was great concern that, had any of the window lintels collapsed, the whole facade would have come crashing down.

At that time, in climbing to the battlements one took one's life into one's hands, and there was no way I would have hung out from their crumbling edges to take a picture like this.  The view would have shown a mound of rubble, the product of the systematic stripping of the three buildings over many decades.

This picture shows what conditions were like along the battlement walkway in June 2013, and this....

....is much the same view today.  What a difference!

It's a small but nice point of detail, but this picture and the top picture both show the caps that crown the chimney pots on the north and west ranges, cut from Caithness stone.

Radio Presenter's Visit

Yesterday afternoon, Mingary Castle was very pleased to welcome Mark Stephen, well-known presenter of BBC Radio Scotland's popular 'Out of Doors' programme which is broadcast on a Saturday morning.  He's seen here with researcher Laura Cuthill talking to builder Mark Thompson.

The weather was - briefly - kind so, with most of the scaffolding down, Mark saw the castle at its best.

He recorded an interview but has promised to return in the near future to spend more time both at the castle and on West Ardnamurchan.

Mingary Castle in Snow

Snow isn't common on West Ardnamurchan - the peninsula is too much influenced by the warm waters of the North Atlantic Drift - so when it does come, particularly with some accompanying sunshine, the scenery can be spectacular.

This is Mingary Castle from the east, with the Isle of Mull half covered in cloud in the distance, while....

....this picture was taken from the shingle beach immediately to the west of the castle, with the highest mountain on West Ardnamurchan, Ben Hiant, behind.

Our morning's visit to the castle was made by a juvenile sea eagle, which soared over the castle ramparts before setting off westwards towards Mull.

Christmas Wishes

Here's wishing all the team at Mingary Castle a very happy, enjoyable and relaxing Christmas break.  The site is closing down on the 18th, but some of them will be away earlier.
Back row, left to right: Billy, Nick, Mark, Grimmy, Chris, Damien, 'H'.
Front row, left to right: J-P, Martin, Callum, Richard.

Mingary Sunset

Many thanks to Mark Rutherford Thompson of builders Ashley Thompson for this picture taken at Mingary late yesterday afternoon as the sun was setting across the Sound of Mull at the end of another fine day.

After some days of heavy rain, November has settled down to warm days and nights and has remained dry.

Magazine Article Features Mingary

This month's 'Scottish Island Explorer' carries an article about the restoration work at Mingary Castle, written by historian James Petre.  Look in the right-hand column of the magazine's website, here.

Mingary from the Air

Many thanks to Iain Thornber for these pictures of Mingary Castle, taken recently when he passed in a helicopter.

Iain, a local historian and archaeologist, writes a regular column for the Oban Times.

Mingary from the West

I have lived in this village for some eighteen years, and wandered all over the Ardnamurchan peninsula taking pictures, many of them of Mingary Castle, yet I had never taken one from the west until last week - which is a great pity as this side offers wonderful views of the castle.

The land from which these pictures were taken lies between Mingary and Kilchoan village.  It consists of a low ridge, the northern end of which is called Torr Solais, the hill of light.  It's Ardnamurchan Estate land, rough grazing used for cattle and sheep, though the section closest to the castle has some very fine pedigree bulls in it.

The point jutting into the sea just beyond the castle is called Rubh' a' Mhile, 'mile point', the summit beyond is Ben Hiant, Beinn Shianta in Gaelic, the blessed mountain, while the headland to its right is Maclean's Nose.

The grassy area on this side of the castle, set in a glen with its small burn, is the site of the clachan which housed the people who once served the castle.  They were cleared from their homes when the Estate was 'improved' in the early 18th century, at which time the field walls were built - probably out of stone taken from the houses.

This view of the castle shows how the scaffolding had to be built up from the beach in order to support the sections along the west and south walls.  The base of the scaffolding has since been inundated in the recent storms which have hit the peninsula, but nothing has moved other than a half dozen scaffolding boards, which have been blown out of place.  We're still wondering whether this is the current biggest scaffolding structure on any building in Scotland.

The Year in Review

A year ago, the 700-year old walls of Mingary Castle were on the verge of collapse.  The joints in the igneous sill on which the castle stands were opening up and the huge blocks of rock falling outwards, threatening to take the whole castle with them.  Rocks from the upper parts of the curtain walls were falling into the courtyard, many of the lintels over the doors and windows of the north range were about to fail, access was so dangerous that the area was fenced off, and the occupants of the castle were pigeons, starlings, mice, and the occasional passing mink.

Today, the huge blocks of sill have been pinned so they won't fall and the curtain walls stabilised, extensive archaeological investigations have been carried out, the structure has been photographed and mapped to provide a detailed record for future research, the building has been sheathed in a network of scaffold so that every part of the walls can be easily reached, a start has been made on removing loose mortar and on the massive task of re-pointing, and a temporary roof has been constructed over the north range.

If all goes well, by the end of 2014 the castle will once again stand proudly in its position dominating the northern entrance to the Sound of Mull.  Construction work will re-start on 6th January and, if there are no delays, by the end of this year the project should be completed and the castle ready for its new role as a top specification letting property.  This will enable the castle to pay for its maintenance into the foreseeable future.

Progress so far has been possible because the Trustees have managed to raise enough money to finance it, but funds are now critically low.  With the coming of the New Year, the Trustees are appealing once again for financial support so that the project can be completed on time.  Please, if you can, donate something, however small, through mydonate - there's a permanent link at top right of this page.

The Trustees wish all the friends and supporters of Mingary Castle a happy,

healthy and prosperous 2014.

Happy Christmas!

Work on the castle has shut down for Christmas which, in one way, is just as well - we're having one of the worst runs of storms that I can remember in the years I have been here.  We woke to yet another gale this morning, a southerly which is bringing the seas straight in onto the beach below the castle, but everyone is very confident that the scaffolding will withstand anything the weather can throw at it.

The Trustees wish all our readers and supporters a very Happy Christmas.

A Baptism of Wind

The first Atlantic storm of the winter battered Mingary Castle and surrounding area last night and this morning, with gale force winds which destroyed power lines, brought trees down, and left the peninsula without both land line and mobile telephone signal.  Over 24mm (an inch) of a mixture of rain, sleet, hail and snow fell in twenty-four hours.  To make matters worse, high water of a spring tide coincided with the peak of the gale, at about seven this morning.  It was a chance for John Forsyth's scaffolding to show whether it could survive a full Highland storm.

It acquitted itself magnificently.  The only damage was when about ten of the scaffolding boards along the top walkway ripped through the ropes which held them to the poles, but even then they didn't come down.  It will only take John-Paul Ashley's men a few minutes to fix them.

Of more concern than the wind was the fear that a high tide, pushed along by a westerly gale, would bring seaweed and flotsam against the base of the scaffolding on the beach to the west of the castle.  This would have given the waves much more drag against the base of the scaffolding, which might have brought the whole thing down.  The seaweed came in, a length of rope wrapped itself round some of the poles, and a tree trunk narrowly missed the structure, but it has stood up to this first test.

Winter Morning

A winter morning, looking down the Sound of Mull from the castle.

Winter's Coming

We're now moving rapidly into winter.  The winters here are dominated by the prevailing southwesterlies which draw in mild, wet air from the North Atlantic.  October and November are characterised by squally showers, sometimes of hail, and bright sunny intervals, but recently it's been more of the showers than the sun, with a rainfall total for the last week in October of just under 70mm.

The first thing one notices when arriving at the castle after a break of a few days is that the working area in front of the building is neat and drained, not the soggy quagmire it could so easily have become.  This is largely due to the loads of rock which were spread across it, which allow the rainwater to percolate through.

The wind was a blustery force 5 when I climbed the scaffolding, but the walkways, although wet, aren't slippery, and the railings give one a sense of security.  Most of the scaffolding in the courtyard is complete, though the scaffolders are due to return in a week to complete the job.

While I was on the highest scaffolding the wind suddenly picked up, gusting towards gale force.  As a wall of sleet hit the structure the whole scaffolding framework reverberated and the boards underfoot hummed.  A retreat to the down-wind side of the castle brought some protection, but working in those conditions would have been impossible.

Last winter Ricky Clark, who lives in one of the nearby Mingary Cottages, recorded a gust of over a hundred miles an hour.  It'll be interesting to see how the structure survives in those conditions.

The Castle from the Sea

With the tide low I walked round the east side of the castle today, and crossed the shingle beach onto the wave-cut platform, going out as far as I could in order to try to recreate Iain Thornber's picture which was featured on Sunday's blog entry.  There's a rock platform which got me fairly far out, but nothing like far enough to achieve the angle of the old photo, which has the hill called Glas Bheinn in the background.  Either it was taken from a boat, or at low tide during spring tides.  I'll try again.

Rainbow over Mingary

The castle this afternoon, picture taken from the Kilchoan-Tobermory ferry.

Raising a Family

Despite all the noise, a pair of thrushes are still in residence trying to raise a family.  Their nest is somewhere in the rocks at the top of the battlements, so the nestlings have a good view of the goings-on below.

Stuck Truck

Doing a job like this in such a remote part of the world was never going to be either easy or cheap.  The nearest small town is 50 miles away down narrow roads and across a ferry, and most materials come from far further afield.  To make matters worse, the local roads are single track with soft verges, so when an articulated lorry driver who doesn't know the area comes down them, there's plenty of room for problems.

This lorryload of scaffolding came down the road this morning, but the driver missed the Ardnamurchan Estate turn and ended up in the village.  When he came back he had a sharp bend to negotiate at the entrance to the Estate, the verge collapsed and he was down to his axles in moments.  Fortunately, he didn't block the only road out of Kilchoan, though large trucks couldn't get past.

This isn't the first time this has happened in the village, and it's the sort of place where everyone pulls together when there's a problem, so help was quickly obtained - none of the Estate heavy-lifting machines could be used because the drive was blocked.  So a tractor came out from the village and, with the help of the entire Estate staff, offloaded the scaffolding.  The tractor then lifted the back end of the lorry back onto the road.

The whole operation took somewhere over two hours.  Many thanks to Gillespie Cameron for coming to the rescue.

Pictures and information from Ricky, with thanks.