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.
We’ve finally managed to get our range of gorgeous lambswool items online and looking lovely. Find it here!
There’s a scarf, a stole, a blanket and a serape – all 100% pure New Wool in the Dunans Rising tartan – all in time for Christmas! But there’s limited stock!
This weekend the final survey at Dunans was completed – an accurate survey of the ground around the castle is absolutely key when planning drainage, access and outbuildings. Gregor from GM Geomatics spent the day with multiple yellow tripods and lasers, and we should see the results shortly!
Note the tripod and tallest tree leaning slightly to the right – more about the cameraman than the surveyor!
This is the area surveyed:
The final element of the detailed survey work is an interior dimensional survey of the castle – which requires clearance of the interior spaces.
We have had lots of great moments with Lairds and Ladies when they come to visit their plot of land. Often they will want to leave a marker, or tribute, or ‘development’: we’ve had the flags of most nationalities, we’ve had farmyard animals, we’ve even had a red Monopoly hotel – but today we had one of the most creative …
If you are a Laird or Lady and want to take the tour and visit your plot of land, please click here for more details!
Today we had a marvellous outing courtesy of Sadie. For my birthday last year my darling wife gave me a jaunt in the Loch Lomond Seaplane. Well, today we finally got to go. It was a truly brilliant day out, and the highlight was of course circling Dunans in the morning sunlight before going off for lunch at Loch Voil. We thoroughly recommend this as a great way of seeing Argyll and especially Cowal which on the right day is spectacular!
For everyone who has entered our competition to vote for all the photos included in this gorgeous calendar, it is now for sale at the Scottish Laird website!
I’m really very proud of this – not least because it uses photographs from both myself and our redoubtable in-house professional photographer, Jean Donaldson (powan.co.uk). We do have one archive shot, not used before, to show what Dunans was like c. 1930. …. And we couldn’t resist a shot of the Scotties too, looking delightful in the frost this January.
I wonder if you can guess which are Jean’s and which are mine? Confirmation when you buy the calendar and look at the credits at the end!
Need say no more than look at this great pic taken by Sue this afternoon!
This week the bridge is being investigated – carefully, slowly and with due regard for its age, possible infirmaties and status.
Our structural engineer, Steve Wood (David Narro Associates) , Heritage Consolidation, the contractors, our QS Gordon Brown (Brown & Wallace), our Planning advisor, John Paton (Paton Planning & Development) and of course our architect, Robin Kent (Robin Kent Architecture & Conservation), along with the scaffolders had a day working on and planning for the bridge – as well as the rest of the site.
Of course we took lots of photos, see below, and the initial conclusions were very interesting.
In the second trench (this sounds SO like Time Team) we discovered an extraordinary structural indicator that would, if confirmed by historical experts, mean that Thomas Telford did indeed design and build the bridge (there’s no extant paperwork). Needless to say Architect, Structural Engineer, Heritage Consolidation and ScottishLaird are all very, very excited.
We’ll post more via our Lairds and Ladies newsletter later next week!
It was bound to happen at some point: the two companies working so successfully side-by-side at Dunans would eventually get together and create a theatrical piece for our Lairds and Ladies.
Well, today marked the first performance of a specially commissioned play ‘The Drovers and the Laird’ by the The Walking Theatre Company, written by my lovely/their very own in-house play-wright, Sadie Dixon-Spain, and performed by Rebecca Bloom, Janis Marshall-Reilly and John Love.
The play begins in 1715 and tells the tale of the arrival at ‘Dounens’ of the first Fletcher. Rob Roy MacGregor makes an appearance as does the lovely Anne McNabb, however more than these snippets I will not reveal because next year we’re going to put on several performances of the play for our Lairds and Ladies.
When you ask? Well the dates are not confirmed, but we think four or five weekends through the summer, and each will be available to our Lairds and Ladies well in advance to enable travel plans.
We’re also developing “command performances” for very special Lairds and Ladies – more on the website soon.
You may also be wondering why the picture of woodland at the top? Well, the party asked not to have photos taken on the day, so our only option was a long distance shot of the opening scene – on the bridge, in the sunshine. I can attest that there was lots of laughter, but the performers and audience are not really visible at all. Oh well. Next time we’ll get Jean Donaldson of Powan to take some crackers!
A quiet Sunday, lots of brash and some stumps. A great way to develop a proper thirst over the course of a day.
With bonfire expertise provided by the inimitable Bruce Allen and labour by myself we burned through three and made inroads into another three. By the end of the operation access into the woodland at the top of Dunans policies was properly enabled.
The pints of Highlander were especially welcome that evening. Now all I have to do is put in the culverts!
The work by AOC to create a detailed laser survey of the castle has borne fruit in the most spectacular fashion. This fly-by generated by the data shows the level of detail that the technique has captured. We’re delighted because this represents a really detailed dataset from which drawings and plans can be elaborated – and all enabled by our Lairds’ and Ladies’ support.
