Historic St Comghan's church, set on a hill above Kilchoan, has been fenced off from public access for some months now because owners Highland Council considered the lintel over the door to be unsafe. Picture shows builder Mark Thompson, whose company did the restoration work at Mingary Castle, inspecting the two cracks in the stone lintel before work started.
As well as repairing the lintel, Historic Environment Scotland gave permission for the three eighteenth century window arches, and the sills below, to be stabilised.
The agreed solution for the entrance involved inserting a steel strengthening bar with oak lintels behind, enabling the wall inside the entrance, which had collapsed, to be rebuilt.
The solution for the arches included pointing the existing stones, adding a green oak lintel behind each arch, and then adding rocks above to raise the wall level to its original height, further increasing the stability of the arches. Stonemason Damien is seen here working on the east arch, while....
....his colleague Grimmy finished off the lime mortar work under the central window's sill.
We even had Mark working on the project, if only for a moment or two.
As the church is a scheduled monument, the work has been funded by a grant from Historic Environment Scotland. The money is being handled by the West Ardnamurchan Community Development Company.
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