Mingary Castle had been abandoned for over 150 years when, in 2013, the Mingary Castle Preservation & Restoration Trust was set up to save the castle from imminent collapse and give it a modern purpose.
It was my considerable privilege to be given open access to the castle throughout the three-year project that followed, with the task of writing a blog, from....
....the early stages when, for example, a specialist team came in to pin back the granophyre slabs on which the castle was built. These, like gigantic dominoes, were beginning to fall outwards taking the structure with them.
As time went by, a procession of specialist teams came in. Watching them, talking with them, gaining some small appreciation of their skills, made each visit a pleasure. For some months, the archaeologists had free reign, but before they finished....
....a small team came in and built what must have been the biggest scaffold structure at that time in Scotland.
The specialists came and went but the core team from main contractor Ashley Thompson stayed on, month after month with few, very short breaks, working sometimes in appalling conditions and living on site in caravans. They worked hard, they persisted, they won my admiration, and they completed the job....
....so that today the castle is a successful hotel catering for a steady stream of very satisfied visitors - see the Booking.com website
here, where the hotel has a 9.5/10 rating.
The Mingary Castle blog is here.
Jon Sorry to here you are leaving the area, i hope you and your family all the best for the future wherever you may end up ?
ReplyDeleteHoward