Safety First at Dunans: Protecting our visitors and also the castle

Over the last year, as you’ll know if you have been following us, we’ve put in place a variety of surveys, plans and consultations which will help us realise the restoration of the castle. Over Christmas David Wright helped us take a small step further by installing a safety fence around the castle.

Now most safety fences are metal temporary things which have a habit of falling over at the drop of a hat – or weather bomb as the British press likes to call them. There’s a great example of how not to do it along Loch Fyne at St. Catherine’s.

Our safety consultant, Gillian Clark of GMO Consulting therefore recommended a post and rails fence, one that would look relatively benign in the context of the castle, and provide a proper visual and physical barrier to the building.

The results are great – the main photo above shows how the fencing is not particularly visually intrusive, and the ones below the detail of how we fenced and gated the front and side. You’ll notice we have left an area for the signage to remain, so our tours will remain safe behind the fence, but their view of the building won’t be obscured.

New Signage to Welcome our Visitors: Fàilte do na Dùnanan

In the ongoing redesign of our signage, I have now got to the one which welcomes folk to Dunans. A bilingual sign, I’ve taken the opportunity to tie the whole visual aesthetic into the Dunans Rising tartan, as displayed in the logo middle top. I have also add a Tours panel and shown where to find the Lairds’ and Ladies’ plots. Parking areas are now also marked, and we’ve also got the route to the front of the castle in place. The non-public areas are also shown to avoid confusion, as is the site office – from which the business is run too.

failtedonadunanans

This is also the sign which will initiate the marking out of the paths (finally). As you can see we have chosen white and purple and will mark the routes accordingly – so no more getting lost in the wilds of Dunans!!

I’ll show our markers when done – the purple is called ‘Summer Damson’…

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