Category: Dunans Castle

Our Lairds and Ladies form a huge community of interest around the restoration of Dunans Castle. The website sells gift packages and merchandise, most of the latter being based on our very own ‘Dunans Rising’ tartan.

Making progress at #DunansCastle with our architect, surveyor and H&S consultant

bridgesketchMuch discussion over the next stage of the work pending the consultation responses from Historic Scotland, Argyll and Bute Council, the Community Council, Development Trust and of course our Lairds and Ladies. During the afternoon we discussed the possible reasons for the round tops to the eight stanchions on the bridge (which you see in every photo of the structure). Robin, our architect, and author of the Conservation Plan (available here) thinks that they might have been designed to have obelisks or turrets atop. He made this quick, very rough sketch to outline the idea and I had to share it with you. Of course the reality is that it is unlikely they were ever built, and if they were they were taken down for good reason. More research may reveal the real intent.

After 5 hours of working through our plans we called it a day, or at least that was the intention – instead, Sadie launched into TWTC work and I, for my sins, went off for a three hour meeting with the Development Trust. It really doesn’t stop!

First Feedback on the Conservation Plan for Dunans from one of our Lairds!

p1Laird Andrew Kerensky was the first of our Lairds and Ladies to acquire his copy of the Conservation Plan, and he has this to say about it:

Hello Dunans Castle – Home of the Scottish Laird Project I have received my digital copy of the Dunans Restoration project book thank you. It is a fascinating read…  it is very well written and incredibly insightful into the work going on thus far. I’m amazed that you are allowing us one footers an opportunity to contribute some opinions and thoughts into your wonderful project. Thanks for this!

Of course we are delighted, and to whet your appetite even further, we have included the introductory spread of the book as the featured image on this post.

Narcissi, Primula & Barty: a winning combination for tours at Dunans this Spring!

To celebrate that Spring really may finally have sprung, three photos. The first two are very much about the grounds. The narcissi come up every year and are a delight – banks of them in front and behind and around the castle. The primroses seem to have had an excellent year this year and are now present on both approaches to the bridge. Perhaps this explosion is to do with the significantly warmer winter we had this year, and perhaps this explains Barty the basset hound’s sprightliness – I haven’t seen him move this quickly, ever. So quick was he I nearly didn’t capture him fully – as it is his head is blurred. Barty the Ballistic Bassett perhaps?

If you want to meet Barty, see the beautiful grounds, and hear about the progress of the restoration, book a tour now at help@scottishlaird.com (we run tours Mon-Weds-Fri at 12 noon, April-October) £2.50 p/p, free for Lairds and Ladies!

Making email newsletters more elastic and more cost effective: @elasticemail

elasticemailSo Scottishlaird.com has over 11,000 subscribers divided into three separate lists, and frankly we were growing tired of an ever-inflating monthly charge from our old supplier – a rather overgrown simian. Now, don’t get me wrong the service was excellent, the templates great and creating an html email a breeze to put together and design, but the cost was ridiculous.

So yesterday, in email dialogue with Julie from ACT around the mailing list for that charity, the contractor recommended Elastic Email. So me having the technicals, I gave the system a once over.  So impressed was I, that I have converted our entire list to Elastic Email and dumped Mailchimp back down to the free account.

Why keep the free gorilla account? The wonderful integration between it and my e-commerce software – we’ll be using it to collect subscribers and then transfer them over to EE. Security-wise we’re fine, given that both companies are at the top of their game, but it is a bind to have to migrate users over ….

The only word of caution I’d give, is that EE isn’t quite as user-friendly as MC – but then I *think* that’s what you’d be paying extra for with when you go ape!

(… and all of this rather explains why there has been a hiatus on the email newsletter front with Scottish Laird – sorry!)

The Conservation Plan for Dunans, Lairds and Ladies edition is Published!

smWebCover-ConservationPlanCover

Both the commemorative edition for Lairds and Ladies, and the PDF version have finally been published on ScottishLaird.com. This marks the first stage in the consultation on the plan, and all answers will contribute to the development of our plans for the building, grounds and bridge.

#FabulousFriday: finally closed out the Dunans Conservation Plan books, and redesigned the greeting pack for Lairds & Ladies

interiorspread-bluefolderWatch the Scottish Laird site for news on the books (in particular our Lairds’ and Ladies’ and the PDF versions), and in the meantime enjoy the inside of the ScottishLaird welcome pack A4 folder. Gorgeous isn’t it? Lots of Dunans Rising tartan, lots of Lairds and Ladies taking the tour, and lots of new information researched through the plan.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until the end of October Lairds and Ladies are invited to Dunans for a tour at midday!

tourphotoJoin our intrepid guide Colin, on a tour which tells the tale of Dunans over the last 500 years.

Today a party of 15 learned about the history of the building, the fire in 2001, the bridge and the tallest tree in the UK (it is!).

We’re number-crunching the GPS coordinates for all the Lairds and Ladies’ Plot numbers

As is obvious from the picture, this is not a trivial task. The GPS coordinates we’re generating have to be processed using excel, then a text editor, and then parsed into SQL. At the same time, we’re relating the coordinates to specific plot numbers according to the schematic we drew up right at the beginning of the project in December 2007. These things take time, and we are still calibrating the results, so its all not entirely accurate yet.

If you would like to get an idea of where your plot is, please visit our beta app, here.

First Aerial Movie of Dunans Castle is over in 19 seconds, but shows spectacular potential!

Over the bank holiday we have been testing our new quadcopter mounted camera and this is a short excerpt of what we think will become an exciting and revealing tool for the restoration of the castle. We’re presently designing shots for a forthcoming ibook of the Conservation Plan.

Final Proof of the Conservation Plan for Dunans in from Lulu today – we’re so close to publishing the book I can smell it!

That’s the printer’s ink, the new paper and the ozone of a press that I can smell … No, but really the proof is a live book printed by Lulu, ordered three days ago and received today – and it’s lovely and glossy and just beautiful.

We’re looking for a small Scottish printer at the moment to do a run of between 250-500 hardbacks with dust jackets. And that run will be the primary publication, but we’ll continue with the more expensive Lulu version to enable easy sales around the world.

The PDF version is also nearing completion, and that’ll be immediately available on the Scottish Laird website. It’s not as glossy, but all of the text is there, albeit in a more compressed typographical form!

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