One of my recent favorite phrases is "say what you see", because in my humble opinion many of the world's problems can be solved simply by being bold enough to report on what is happening in front of your eyes. To solve the problem of how to fill today's blog entry, I will say what I see in the two photographs I have just taken. :-) In the first photo you can see Joe at the top of the scaffolding, plastering the top of the north wall. He is nothing if not ambitious, as he is trying to complete this mammoth wall in a single day. Ambitions were partially thwarted as Joe reported he had had a ..read more

For some time, the restoration project at Balintore Castle has been in need of a push on the plastering front. We have been using local plasterers who have kindly donated their evenings and weekends to move things forward gradually, but the larger plastering jobs such as the walls of the servants' staircase have gone untouched. This is where Joe the plasterer from Airdrie comes in. :-) He sent me an unsolicited email out of the blue, saying he would like to work on the Balintore project, having read a newspaper article about the restoration. As ever offers of help are just that, and it is rar ..read more

Today Gavin and Gregor completed the plaster-boarding of the north wall of the Great Hall. You can see the before photo from Monday 22nd April at the bottom, and the after photo which was taken at the end of today (Thursday 25th April) at the top. The two G's have recently started taking Fridays off, and work longer hours Monday through Thursday, so I am particularly delighted they managed to get finished today on a week boundary. north wall plaster-boarding: after north wall plaster boarding: before The wall has started to take on the appearance that the architect originall ..read more

The photograph below was taken today, and shows how the recladding of the north and west walls of the Great Hall is progressing. You have to realise that all the plaster was lost on these walls, so the only clues as to the internal appearance are the original plans, and the surviving plasterwork on the south and east walls. Great Hall today In the top right of the image above is Gregor's first ever Gothic arch. :-) He cut the shape first out of oriented strand board (OSB) and then out of plasterboard. He was originally going to cut a circular arch, until I pointed out that there wa ..read more

Joe and his brother Chris are at the castle today restoring some ornamental plasterwork: the first new ornamental plasterwork in Balintore Castle since 1860. The technique is called "running a mould". Instead of buying lengths of coving, you draw a former along the wall on wooden battens lubricated with tallow. No doubt Viking long ships were launched using the same technology.  The former is cut from sheet metal, and the shape is a careful copy of the surviving moulding on the top floor of the castle. the mould or former for Balintore's top floor coving The tallow comes in s ..read more

Work on the Great Hall at Balintore Castle continues apace. There are 5 internal window structures in the room. Each of these consists of 3 glass panels at the top and 3 blank plaster panels at the bottom. Joe, the plaster, is currently repairing the plaster panels. You can see today's repaired plaster panels on the right and the panels awaiting repair on the left. So while this is "small beer" compared to the large amount of new plaster work required in the Great Hall, it is still another step forwards. In an old photograph, each set of three plaster panels is covered rather clumsily in a Pa ..read more

Little did I expect, that when coming back from Edinburgh to Balintore Castle this morning, that I would find myself in the middle of a heavy snowstorm. While it is the 5th April by the calendar, the weather is dragging us back into winter. Admittedly, the snow had started to melt by the time I took the photo below (10:54AM) and it had mostly all gone by the end of the day. snow on the 5th April 2024 Yesterday in Edinburgh was bright and sunny. The contrast with today at Balintore, was all the more marked as a result. Watch out for a future blog post on the castle-related trip to t ..read more

Construction of the replacement big turret is proceeding apace in the Great Hall. The dwangs, or horizontal cross braces between the vertical struts, are now in position. I asked Gregor if it made more sense to fit the dwangs once the skeleton of the turret had been reconstructed outside i.e. less to dismantle. However, he indicated that fitting the dwangs is a footerie, time-consuming process, so he would prefer to do it indoors. However, Gregor stopped at installing the sarking, or external sheeting, indoors, even though it has been cut, because being a surface layer it only has to join up w ..read more

  There is distinct loss of status in admitting that one has been held hostage at home by a marauding pheasant. But as ever in the world of Balintore, the unbelievable is the reality. I decided, rather late in the afternoon, to set off on my daily walk. As I descended the steps at the front door of the castle, a pheasant ran at me from around 50 yards away stopping right in front of me. If I stepped down to ground level, there was no doubt it would attack. Shouting and waving my arms had no effect. It simply was not going to leave ..read more

Yesterday, Gavin and Gregor finishing installing the new windows in the Great Hall. However, as I was rushing off to Dundee late afternoon, I did not have time to register the fact or indeed record the moment. However, I was able to take a photo today, and of course to put things in context, I have supplied a "before" photo from the 18th January. before windows installation: 18th January 2024 after window installation: 27th February 2024 Light coming in from the outside transforms the space so totally, that I have not come to terms with it yet. In fact, in the "after" pho ..read more