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.
… 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!
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 …
Menu
Plot Finder
Our Shop
About us
Audio Tour Map
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!
… 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
Getting deeper in the first pit …
Steve and Colin discuss depth …
Steve examines a bucket …
Grey clay from the bottom of pit 2
The final pit where we found the most natural profile.
We’re working very hard at Dunans, restoring and protecting Castle and Bridge – the castle is a B-listed structure, and the bridge is A-listed. If you have been following my posts you’ll know about our Conservation Plan for Dunans, and how we are moving from feasibility work, through design and investigatory works towards consent.
Published in April 2014, our Conservation Plan
Associated with the site there are several other historic structures. One is the C-listed Fletcher Mausoleum: this building is the only one remaining in Fletcher ownership – which is entirely appropriate. Another is the old steading to the North-east of the castle, known as Dunans Steading – a building sold apart from the Castle in 1999.
A 19th Century map showing spatial relation between bridge (top left), castle (bottom middle) and steading (top right)
Built at around the same time as the bridge was built it is believed the Steading was used as accommodation for the workforce who worked on the A-listed structure. Over the subsequent years this courtyard of buildings was utilised variously by the Fletchers as: mill for the timber needed to construct the castle; estate office, running the 40,000 acre estate; stables; hay barn; vehicle storage and general workshop space.
In the mid-2000s an application was submitted which the local authority insisted was accompanied by an application for Listed Building Consent. This Listed Building application was acknowledgement of the very particular place the building plays at Dunans. Not only does it stand in the historic policies of Dunans Castle, and has a direct functional purpose for the castle, but also the only access to it, is Dunans Bridge. This fact of access means that any use the owners of the Steadings make of the bridge has to be cognisant of the listed status of the bridge, the involvement of Historic Scotland and the Dunans Charitable Trust.
The other factor in this story, is the electricity supply to the castle. Originally of course, when both buildings were in the same ownership , the power supply could be routed to the steading and then onto the castle without problem. In fact, when it was installed Colonel Fletcher insisted the meters be sited at the Steading for ease of access by the electricity company, as well as ensuring the privacy of the family and the proximity of the working element of the estate for any queries. A sensible arrangement then.
However, when the Steading was split apart from the castle the meters weren’t similarly split – neither the electricity company or the then owners insisted on this, despite it being a condition of sale. This means then to read our bill – more of which in a subsequent post – I have to venture onto the neighbouring land, and in close proximity to fallen trees, smashed walls and very precarious gable ends pick my way to the meters, prise open the meter door and take the reading. A tri-monthly gauntlet.
The approach to the Steading!The meters and the obstructions!
To record the state of things, and the danger to yours truly, this time I took some photos, and was inspired to write this post when I saw the results – a building in desperate need. The owners have refused us contact details (we believe they are based down in Kent), are not contactable through their agents, have not been onsite to our knowledge for over 2 years, will not talk to us, the owners of their sole access to their building. This is difficult when, as you’ll know, we are presently putting together an application to funders for of the restoration of the A-listed bridge – ie. £750K.
Work on the bridge, Summer 2014
What is particularly galling is that both the steading and the bridge need work now, and therefore we need to have a reasonable dialogue with the owners about their usage of the bridge to enable work on the Steading and what their contribution will be to the restoration of the bridge.
That conversation is needed because until we have it, forward movement on either project will prove very difficult.
Sometimes it takes a new eye to see a new angle in a new season to really show how wonderful this place looks. Alex, TWTC’s intern, took these wonderful panoramic images on Saturday …
Here are a couple of images of one of the products we are developing. This one is for a new decorative title which will only be available for the folks who visit us – it has been requested so many times that we’ve finally found time (and inspiration) to get the project going. This title will be available nowhere else … !
And now you’ll be asking what is New Product #1 – and that is a tip-top secret … we’re hoping to launch in the next 6-8 weeks, but more than that we’re not able to say!
Another one of those thought-provoking ecosystem observations, this time from Ireland, which if taken up could see the grey tree rats exiled from these islands altogether. I kid you not!
Not sure we need to say much more, except that our sensational selection of six Scottish chocolates were made as a special commission for us by the excellent Caramiche Chocolatiers who can be found in Dunoon in a gorgeous haze of chocolateness … Chocolates helping restore a castle in Scotland – wonderful!
There’s the Dunans Dram, the Castle Cranachan, Wild River Raspberry, Highland Honeybee, the Laird’s Retreat and the Lady’s Secret …
Now at our website, ScottishLaird.com, but hurry, we have only very limited stocks!
This winter has been very hard on the grounds at Dunans. We’ve seen so much intense rainfall that the paths, like last year, are a quagmire. Some relief was afforded by the freeze of last week, but the problem is deep-seated and is about what is happening to the climate overall.
In early January the amount of rainfall led to a large landslip in the ravine, effectively blocking any access to the Laird’s Island. This map, which will be familiar to Lairds and Ladies shows the exact location in relation to Castle and Bridge.
Finding a way to bridge this gap in our path network might prove impossible, given the dynamic nature of the landscape – see the video of the river from Sunday for an idea of the type of flow we receive on an ordinary day …
We’re hopeful that some form of bridge or boardwalk will be possible, but before then we’ll have to wait for the ravineside to settle – and frankly, we are not sure when that will be. We are therefore also looking at alternative pathways, particularly to aid our tours… We’ll have more on this as we work out solutions in time for opening in late March in time for Easter!
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.
