Thanks to friend of Balintore, Chrissie, for alerting to me to the presence of a wonderful video covering a photographic shoot at the castle. I was absent from this shoot, which took place in 2015, and had no idea the video even existed. Chrissie, by the way, is the striking lady in the gold dress.
One of the joys, for me, was seeing how parts of the castle have moved on from 2015. However, it has to be said that the castle's kitchen before restoration does have a certain distressed charm. With cracked plaster walls, with the original bright yellow paint colour much dulled and with mounted deer skulls - it does look like the archetypal abandoned haunted house in a Gothic horror movie!
However, as soon as I started work on the building, and I saw the romantic ruined look being put to one side, I just had to be pragmatic. A poetic ruined look will only last until there is nothing more to decay. It was surely better to keep Balintore around for future generations, and restore it in a way preserving both its Victorian splendor but also permitting some crumbly-edges to remain, as an honest reflection of its troubled past.
Somnolent Images - Castle Shoot from Juliette Lichman on Vimeo.
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