Dixon-Spain, Author at And The Next Thing Is ...

Dunans Rising Phone App: iOS & Android Released …

… and of course we are still adding content and material, but finally dear old Apple have given the go-ahead for our app, which is on the iTunes store as I type.

To download one or the other for a nominal fee, please go to our app page here.

The app brings news, photos, video and tweets directly to hand, with tour booking, audio tours, virtual tours and the tour calendar all included. We’ve also shoe-horned the shop in to enable easy tartan purchasing, as well as more details about how to reach us, how to save money on your bills and contribute to the restoration at the same time, how to locate your plot and how to find our geocache (The Laird’s Purse).

We’re now looking at a tablet app – a completely different challenge!

Android version of the Dunans Rising App is Live!

The month of May has been entirely taken up with working on the development of the new Dunans Rising App. We’ve been collecting all types of material to put into it to make it the “go to” place for all our Lairds and Ladies.

There’s all our latest news, tweets, instagrams and videos. We’ve included our shop with exclusives ready to be launched when the iOS version catches up and goes live. There’s a full audio tour for anyone visiting Dunans, either virtually or not, and we have an audio map too. We have also included our full archive on the restoration – so you can delve deep into all the materials that have been produced by our architects, quantity surveyor, structural engineer and other professionals … Lairds and Ladies can register their personal email addresses too!

It’s also been an excuse to work with some interesting technologies, not least QR codes – here’s the one with the links to our app on Google Play page:

Of course the app also includes a QR code reader as well …

We’re still developing content, which will be added as time goes on. A full virtual tour is one such, which will include video, photos and audio …

We think you’ll love it!

The link to the Android version of the App is here.

The iOS version will launch sometime before June 5th, Apple allowing!

Slate sorting and re-use: An exercise in using everything at #DunansCastle

For a while now we have been holding four pallets of West Coast slate at the front of the castle. With the ongoing preparation for clearance of the building we needed to use them. The problem was not the slates we could use, but those we couldn’t. Because these were recovered from buildings on which they’d been in use for over 50 and sometimes 120 years, many of them had started to delaminate. Others had not fared so well in transit, being chipped and cracked. After sorting we had over 500 slates left. What to do?

Well, for a while now the local buses have been using the drivehead to turn and they have been recently upgraded to a size, maybe 15% bigger, meaning that both of our standing stones were vulnerable to a slipped clutch, overeager throttle or just bad driving. We noted big bus tire tracks within inches of the bigger one around which everyone turns. Something had to be done, and the slates provided the solution.

For the last couple of weeks Mike, our local neighbourhood man of all trades, has been turning the unuseable into something rather splendid. All that remains is to finish off the area inside the larger curb and we’ll start looking very tidy.

“There I was digging a hole, hole in the ground so big and sort of round …

… Well, its not there now, because beneath it is a bloke in a bowler hat.”

Apologies for quoting that evergreen top twenty hit from Bernard Cribbins about a jobsworth inspecting holes, but it has been threading through my thoughts all today as I excavated 4 x 2.5m holes around Dunans today, and then filled them in.

What was the purpose of this seemingly pointless exercise? Well, apart from giving me the opportunity to sing like Mr. Cribbin all day? To ascertain what the castle stands on. The answer is mixed. At the front of the castle we have a layer of gravel, followed by medium-sized stones and then a sandy soil down to at least 2.75m. At the side of the castle, we have a topsoil of 50cm, a layer of compacted earth for the next metre and a half and then sopping wet grey clay, hardening to schist somewhere below 2.5 metres. The back is a tale of sopping wet Clay from top soil down, and then further out on the south lawn (if you can call it that – maybe swamp would be better … Well, after 50cm of sopping turf and soil we get a surprisingly dry compacted earth which at around 1.5m goes into grey clay. 50cms below that it turns into grey schist which defies the digger.

I think Steve and Rebecca, our structural engineers from David Narro Associates were encouraged by the last pit, but overall? We’ve got to wait and see!

Digger from Westcoast plant hire in DUnoon

The final pit where we found the most natural profile.

Original Plans of Dunans Castle: Or at least how we think the house was laid out …

When we purchased Dunans in 2003 we did not receive any of the historic documentation. While the Fletchers hand the paperwork on in good faith, the subsequent owner did not pass the plans on. It is a great pity, because without those plans and specifications we are unable to say that the work that Robin Kent, our architect, has put into creating these drafts has resulted in an entirely accurate rendition.

Certainly what we have here reflects our knowledge – won from the building over the years of clearance and renovation – but whether the family originally intended this layout is a moot point. There are a couple of revisions we have already noted given some of the clearance we have achieved, but it does seem an entirely selfish act on the part of the ex-owner to withhold these papers, unless of course they lost the archive entirely …

What these plans also show is how little service room the house originally had, and how essential the Dunans Steadings must have been to the household economy.

The plans above clearly show the way that the old house was used to service the main block, and also how reception rooms were located on the first storey, with Dining, the smoking room and all things “sporting” occurring on the ground floor.

second-attics — With 3 attic bedrooms in the old house, as well as a further 4 beds in the top of the castle, the plans clearly indicate staffing levels for the entire establishment.

Spiral Inspiration: Draft 0.2 #DunansCastle Plans from Robin Kent

The second version of the sketch plans are in, designed to feed into a sustainable future for Dunans. The idea is that the ground and first storeys are used for functions and conferences, and storeys three and four are given over to accommodation for those who wish to stay here. We think the spiral staircase at the centre of the design will be extraordinary, as it is also a light well, creating a shaft of illumination through the building.

… and this is only possible because of two changes in the brief since draft v0.1. Firstly, we *think* a second staircase is unnecessary – or at least that is the advice ABC is giving us. And secondly, the interior walls are going to have to be stripped away. This means that we free up 10s of cubic metres of space … and space is becoming evermore valuable as we work on the business plan.

So before we feedback, we’ll be looking at the business plan and cash flows and seeing whether the raw capacity numbers add up. The other component I am presently working on is the market for conferencing – finding comparables, taking advice and not being too bullish … which is difficult given the prospect of the spiral (at the same dimension of the main turret) …

They’re going on tour again: TWTC have a triple bill ready to roll!

… and yours truly gets to design the poster! Great fun photos and a cut-out of Long John Silver to boot. Should encourage venues to take part in what looks like a really engaging tour.

Bookmarks and a new Dunans Rising Logo

We’ve just taken receipt of our new Dunans Bookmarks. They’re available now in the Dunans Castle Shop, and will soon be online.

And we have also started working on various other ideas, all of which centre around the new Dunans Rising logo:

Dunans Rising, modelled beautifully!

On an evening when the light faded slowly into limpid shadow, and there was a stillness about Dunans which spoke of Summer rather than very recent Winter, I found four willing volunteers to model Dunans Rising tartan garments.

Actually, that’s not quite right. Sadie and TWTC’s intern Alex decided it was high-time we had some of our lovely tartan modelled properly in the grounds at Dunans. I was dragged out and had a thoroughly lovely time directing my four willing models … the results speak for themselves!

All the items are available at our online store.