A beautiful day on which to install our new signage (spot the lectern in the top image). Took some more photos of the grounds (and of course Barty!).
Category: Dunans Charitable Trust
Dunans Charitable Trust looks after the fabulous A-listed Dunans Bridge, and I’m a trustee.
We have lectern! New signage at the castle for the multitudes of Lairds and Ladies this summer!
The first of our new signs is now in place. Its a kind of lectern made out of treated softwood, so its neither too heavy to shift, or too light to run away with. We also wanted something we could swap signs in and out of as the project progressed. I think Mike has done us proud realising the design.
Later this week we’ll post photos of the new Bridge sign.
Here’s the original design post btw.
Initial Enquiry into the Heritage Lottery Fund for Dunans Bridge Today!
… and they’ll be getting back to us in 10 days. As soon as they feedback we’ll report here. In the meantime here’s the detail of what we said:
Continue reading Initial Enquiry into the Heritage Lottery Fund for Dunans Bridge Today!
Cause for Celebration! Application to Historic Scotland completed and submitted
It took a week to put into the right words, a second to submit – on Friday at around 3pm – but this application (and the one to HLF which I will be working on this week) starts a process that restores the bridge by October next year and enables the opening of the castle by late 2018.
It feels onerous on the one hand, but fantastic to be finally moving on the other!
Below is the edited text of the application.
Continue reading Cause for Celebration! Application to Historic Scotland completed and submitted
The Joy of Tours at Dunans on the #MayDay #BankHoliday
Both Colin and myself took tours today. I chose the easier option and took Scot AnSgeulaiche’s Jamie and Claire Tour based on the Outlander series of books by Diana Gabaldon. What a lovely bunch of folks from Canada and the US (pictured above taking photos of the newly annointed Lady Sue on her square foot). We did the full circuit including looking through the trees, over the ravine, at the C-listed Fletcher Mausoleum.
Colin on the other hand, was tasked with showing a 32-man tour around – they all definitely had a ball – and there are a bunch of photos on Facebook taken by Jean Donaldson, our fab in-house photographer. The shot below, just shows how many folks that is. A really good day at Dunans!
It is such a lovely day I decided to take some panoramas of our A-listed Bridge
… to celebrate the refresh of the Dunans Charitable Trust website at Dunans.org. We’ve shed some dead wood, organised the information more clearly and changed the header photo to the main feature shot here. However, the portrait of the bridge (right) is my favourite showing the main arch, adorned as it is, with self-seeded foliage.
Later: having posted the images above I then had a moment waiting for the children to return from school. I used the time to take a couple of different panoramas, the second of which I think shows in a very succinct way the difficulties anyone would face accessing Dunans in anything bigger than a 7.5 tonne truck.
Progress on the Bridge! We’re devising applications to Historic Scotland and Heritage Lottery Fund this week to effect its repair and restoration.
The next stage in our progress to restoring Dunans, notwithstanding the ongoing consultation on our Conservation Plan, is putting in place the funds for the repair of the bridge. Today I have been working on the application to Historic Scotland on behalf of the Dunans Charitable Trust. I’ve now worked through the entire online form (excerpt attached to this post) and I am beginning the process of making the application to the Heritage Lottery Fund while I await feedback. Necessarily this is a detailed process, but the work that Robin Kent and David Narro associates have put in on the Conservation Plan and Indicative Costings make the whole process much less onerous than I thought it would be.
Once we have finalised the application we’ll be publishing the submitted form (less confidential material) on the Dunans Charitable Trust website here.
The Books have arrived: The copies of the Conservation Plan for Dunans arrived yesterday!
We are all delighted with them, and Monday will see the first copies sent out to all the Lairds and Ladies who have ordered them from ScottishLaird.com.
This first print run is nearly all sold, so if you wish to ensure you receive a copy quickly, please order now.
Making progress at #DunansCastle with our architect, surveyor and H&S consultant
Much 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!
The Conservation Plan for Dunans, Lairds and Ladies edition is Published!
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.