Hell Hall !

Now that Balintore Castle has been rendered wind- and water-proof, the long outstanding task of reconditioning the remaining windows has begun. After a good clean, loose woodwork has to be screwed, followed by re-glazing, puttying and painting. You don't want to know the cost of a new bespoke sash window, so re-use is good conservation and good economics.

entrance tower with reconditioned windows

The entrance tower, with its reconditioned windows, looks so different. While contemplating the tranformative effect on a building of mending broken windows, my mind went back to a favourite book of childhood: Dodie Smith's "The One Hundred and One Dalmatians" with its superlative black and white illustrations by twins Janet and Anne Graham Johnstone.

Hell Hall : before makeover

Pictured is "Hell Hall": the black-painted and distinctly unhealthy erstwhile Georgian residence of Cruella de Vil. This image haunted me as a child. The text refers to the broken windows acting as intimidating staring eyes. What distinguishes Georgian architecture is its extreme symmetry. The unbalanced bays of Hell Hall tell us that all is not well.

Hell Hall : after makeover

Also pictured is a white-painted Hell Hall redemptively re-glazed by Mr. and Mrs. Dearly and turned into their canine-friendly family home at the end of the story. Interestingly, I suspect the naming of the Dearlys is a conscious nod to the Darlings - the parents in Peter Pan. For me "Hell Hall" has been over-restored: the "before" is the more sinfully appealing! :-) Thankfully, you cannot totally whitewash an "evil lair" and Hell Hall retains its asymmetry.


However, the play on black and white: Cruella's hair is half white and half black;  the dalmatians have black spots on a white ground; Hell Hall is transformed by the paint colour change from black to white and indeed the two-tone theme of the illustrations themselves, is satisfyingly thematically.


So while Balintore is being re-glazed, fans of Cruella de Vil can rest easy that I won't be painting it white. And don't let me get started on that other Dodie Smith book, richly imbued with a sense of place, "I Capture The Castle".

Let There be Light

Let There Be Light

Further work on the attic room today, namely wiring and plaster-boarding. I have some brave friends who will be attempting to sleep in the room on Saturday night, so the rush has been on this week to get things as habitable as possible beforehand. With just one work day to go, I shall be delighted if the plaster-boarding gets finished - though the schedule is pretty tight. In any case, the plastering proper will have to be for another time. Overall, working to such a deadline has been fun - the less one does the more one's friends have to slum it. It's win-win for me! :-)

My builder started to become very fussy indeed when electrical fittings appeared on the scene today. :-) I don't think he wants anything in bad taste to spoil his excellent work. The torchier wall lights with flambeau shades (pictured) were declared to be horrendous, and I must admit I bought them in a weak moment, when I called in at a warehouse full of lighting reclaimed during pub refits. However, I stand by my view that they give the attic room, largely devoid of character, a little lift and of course they have a suitable castley feel!. When we wired them up and switched them on (lower picture), he acquiesced that they looked better "on", and he had no end of fun at my expense: "Will the Mr. Whippy tune start, when you switch on the lights?". You get the picture. :-)

We changed the light switch 6 times, as the builder become concerned about possible non-coordination of  the brass fittings, and I wanted to make sure he was happy. :-)

The light switch in the first picture was plain white plastic (just to test the circuit) and after moving through both showy and plain antique switches, we settled on a repro brass one (£1.99) shown in the second picture - which looks fairly period but is understated and should fit in with modern brass sockets. The "Victorian" and especially the "Georgian" sockets you can buy on eBay, etc, most certainly aren't! :-)

today's plaster-boarding and wall light installation

the wall lights' grand "switch-on"

Elegant in Ermine

As I walked through the castle courtyard today, a stoat in its white winter pelt crossed my path and dashed into the wood pile for refuge. Whoa - this is the first time I had seen a stoat in ermine. :-) What a beautiful animal. I had been hearing a creature moving in the castle's loft during the night above my bedroom, and had assumed it was a mouse even though it had seemed a lot bigger and louder than usual. Mystery solved - it was the stoat. This would also explain why the mouse numbers have been down inside the castle of late - this is a good thing.

It was also in the mountains above Balintore, a couple of winters ago, that I first saw hares in their white winter coats. My friends pointed them out. Up to this point I had been thinking "Most unusual for sheep to be up here.". :-)

The Ugly Mystery

Today, I received a DVD through the post of the horror film "The Ugly". I did not order this and know of no-one who would send me this. I am somewhat concerned - ID theft or insult? :-( Did you send me this film, or know who did? The envelope was empty apart from the DVD - no documentation whatsoever. Even Sherlock Holmes would be stumped. :-) I will have to view for clues!

"The Ugly" mystery - do you know anything?

Attic Room Dry-Lining

Yesterday, I helped my builder construct a stud wall on the east facing gable end of the attic room in the entrance tower. The day before (Monday) I helped with the stud wall on the west facing gable.

Now with all surfaces insulated, it is the one and only WARM room in the castle. You can literally feel the temperature difference when entering. It's all I can do to hold myself back from moving in - however, it is sensible to do the wiring and plaster-boarding first! :-)

We built the walls directly underneath original Victorian roof beams. For once, Victorian precision was lacking and the beam on the west side sloped down from left to right by a whole inch. This took some working around.

new west gable end stud wall

new east gable end stud wall

Secret Carvings and Roasting One's Own Nuts

Today (Sunday) my friend Andrew and I assaulted the outstanding roof insulation at top of the entrance tower of Balintore Castle. I was still guiltily in bed when Andrew arrived (was it 10AM?) but despite the late start we managed to finish the insulation around 6PM. So a particularly rewarding day's work.  I proved singularly incapable of hammering in any nail with enough force to tack things into position, but hopefully made up for this by crawling round the minuscule loft spaces around the cold water tank to guide the insulation into position.

completed insulation

completed insulation - detail

There are always new things to notice at Balintore Castle, and while standing around for a minute or so, I noticed that a block of stone that had been hidden behind a wall (and was now exposed) had an intricate corner carving on it. Had the mason messed it up and just used the spoiled block in the fabric of the building, or was it a little apprentice piece? The stone is limestone, which in only used in very small quantities at the castle, generally for carved internal details. It looks like it might have been intended as a detailing for the internal windows between the grand saloon and the principal bedroom corridor.

secret carving that was hidden behind lath-and-plaster

One of my life principles, which I expound regularly to Andrew, is that it is ALWAYS possible to do something new every day of one's life. It is both an exhortation to behave "out of the box", but also to observe "out of the box". Fortunately, today's new task was not hard to identify: roasting one's nuts on an open fire. Neither of us had done this before, and Andrew had never even had a chestnut before. We found that around 10 minutes in a wood-burner wrapped in foil was about optimum - caramelised and delicious but not too burnt.  There is something about chestnuts that limits one to not having that many. One of my errors was once buying a large can of canned chestnuts. They need to be used sparingly, so I didn't use them all before they went off. However, loose chestnuts are another matter - one can roast on demand.

HOT - peel carefully
roasting one's own chestnuts on an open fire

Breaking into One's Own Home

Returning from my Christmas break was considerably more traumatic than expected.

I drove the 300 km from my friends' in Norfolk to my place in Oxfordshire ..... only my new lodgers had locked me out of my own house. :-(  The door had been locked from the inside so my key wouldn't work. However, no amount of knocking on doors or windows could summon anyone from inside. After 20 minutes of this, I tried to phone the landline number to see if I could rouse anyone in this way. However, my mobile had locked up and there was no light to see how to sort it - the interior light of my new pick-up truck is presumably blown. Anyhow, I knocked on my neighbour's door: I like to draw them into my farces. :-) I used the light in their hall to sort out my mobile and phone - after 5 minutes of ringing my front door was opened. Phew !!!!!

What had happened was that I had told my lodger that I would be arriving, but he did not communicate this to the girlfriend.

After seeing my dentist in the area (the final check up of the dental repairs carried out after I was mugged last year and repeatedly punched in the face), I was able to drive off to the castle in Scotland.

After 700km of driving, I arrived at 3AM in the morning at Balintore Castle. Only I could not get in. My builder had left a heavy duty padlock in place - and he has the only key. I had emailed when I would be arriving, but it transpired that removing the padlock had simply slipped his mind.

After 30 minutes of going round the building checking for openings, and after some climbing I managed to break in through a sash window. When I was half-way through, the sash slid down on top of my hips and held me fast - I was stuck! And yes, I did scream like a girl. No help arrived, but by wiggling and lifting the sash with hands behind my back I got free. The only problem was that I was now in a room locked from the outside. To get to my bed - I was now desperately tired after 11 hours of driving - I tried to break the locked door down. However, nothing I could do would make it budge. I tried flying kung-fu kicks; running forwards into the door full force and running backwards into the door fill force. Backwards is better, as bottoms absorb shocks better! Anyhow, after 30 minutes I eventually bent the catch enough to get a narrow implement through the gap at the edge of the door to try to hook the bolt out. Knives did not do it - finally I used the round handle end of a metal kebab stick as a hook to pull out the bolt. It took about 10 goes even then.

So around 4 AM in the morning I collapsed in bed totally shattered. The next day I had arranged to pick up an antique oak fireplace in the morning. However, because there was no sensible way to enter the castle, I was unable to unload my laiden truck. Fortunately, my builder came to my assistance - much appreciated on a Sunday morning. He unlocked the padlock and then we could unload the truck. My friends from Dundee came round to help me collect the oak fireplace, and we got to the antique warehouse just in time. Ironically, one of the things I was unloading from the truck was another fireplace bought over 10 years ago, just in case I ever bought a castle later in life! :-)

I breathed a huge sigh of relief over lunch on Sunday - getting home had been quite a trauma. My friends had considerately brought over a casserole - much appreciated as I had had no time to shop.

It has been deeply unsettling psychologically that I was unable to get in to either of my two houses through no fault of my own. It took several days to make up for the lost sleep.

Anyhow, it is superb to be back at the castle and trying to make a difference - even if this is only working as my builder's assistant, and sourcing materials to keep things moving.

The current little project is flooring and insulating the loft space at the top of the entrance tower. This tower is being plumbed-in, and insulating the loft space where the tanks are held should help prevent burst pipes - last winter the temperature went down to -15C and the kitchen plumbing simply did not survive. So the idea is to also squeeze a small extra bedroom/study into this loft space as a refuge from the cold weather. The room is sufficiently small to need very little heating and we are insulating this to within an inch of its life - see the photos taken today of the work in progress. Of course, it makes sense to insulate to the max for the building as a whole. We are placing rock-wool insulation behind solid insulation. The rock-wool was obtained with an amazing £1-a -roll government-sponsored scheme from NPower. For once I seem to have grabbed the moment, as this has now gone up to £3 a roll.

http://www.npower.com/Home/Energy-efficiency/Home-insulation/DIY-loft-insulation/index.htm

Needless-to-say, when I arrived back at the castle the telephone and the InterNet were not working, The BT engineer finally came out on the third day. He had to replace a section of line due to shotgun damage. I'm not pointing any fingers, but I am surrounded by a shooting estate. :-) The day after the InterNet came up, my lap-top went down. :-( This was collected today, via a return to base HP warranty, by UPS. Fingers crossed this is repaired soon, as I am improvising this blog on an ageing desktop!

IT support seems to be such a full-time job here, that it's a wonder any castle restoration gets done!

north pitch of entrance tower roof - insulation almost finished

south pitch of entrance tower roof - insulation in progress

Any Old Iron and Happy Christmas!

Best wishes for the festive season, and for the new year of 2012 that lies ahead.

It serves us well to reflect on the changes that the last year has brought; and in absolute terms mine are pretty drastic: transitioning from contracting in the City of London at the end of March to becoming a gentleman of leisure in the Scottish Highlands.

Of course "gentleman of leisure" is sadly a complete misnomer, and the reality of restoring a ruined castle is a chaotic patchwork of trying to do the organisation; sourcing things on the cheap; and pitching-in with the labouring! In fact, the most rewarding thing and the one on which I wish I could spend more time is just working on the building. Unfortunately, reality intrudes and other day-to-day things need attending to. However, my builder is brilliant and keeps things moving all the time even when I am out of the area.

The archetypical distraction was this August, when I drove to my house down south for a fortnight’s holiday to attend some social functions. During the stay, my pick-up truck broke down beyond economic repair and buying a new one (with no transport) turned out to be a nightmare. I had four truck sales agreed, but when I went to collect each one, they proved to be un-road-worthy, not as advertised or sold already! I finally purchased a new pick-up at the end of November, and got back to the castle for the winter season, after almost 4 months away!

I made the most of being stuck down south, and was able to make huge progress on my house there. After being rented out, it needed a lot of attention. In October, a new lodger arrived who proved a tremendous help in sorting things out yet further!In fact, the South of England had the most amazing Indian summer:  the best summer I have ever experienced. At the end of November, I was still able to garden in my tee-shirt in warm sunshine. The very next day, I drove back up to Scotland to find snow at the castle! My emigration had coincided with the turn of the weather. This and the change in latitude was a huge shock to my system. I had become a "southern softy" and I didn't think I would be able to live at 0C (the temperature inside the castle). I was pretty demoralised. However, gradually I realised that my body had once acclimatised to this and was doing so again.

My neighbours told me that before my arrival the weather had been mild, but that the whole summer and autumn has been disappointingly wet, so perhaps I had been in the right place after all. In any case, this winter has been relatively mild so far, compared to the previous two Baltic ones. Last night the snow melted away, and it is an incredibly 8C inside the castle today - my builder and I are buoyant!  I am really hoping the winter stays mild to allow work to continue and, being positive, the shortest day is the 22nd Dec, so days will be getting longer before no time.

Before leaving London, I climbed up the Big Ben tower at the Houses of Parliament. This was a rare privilege indeed - you have to write to your MP to request tickets. This was a couple of days before I finished work at the bank, and as I stood there under the bells with the whole of London spread out below,  it was somehow a fitting end to the period of my life that I had spent in London: something I thought I would never do. Let's hope we all take some of the "never say never" spirit into 2012! :-)

ANY OLD IRON: On the drive back to Scotland, I picked up some antique Victorian beds

Ring-Fenced in Angus !

A second wind farm (Cormaud - in pink) has been proposed for behind the castle (the blue Saltire). This is in addition to the wind farm in the planning process (Carroch - in green) in front of the castle. As a teccie type, I decided to plot them both on google maps to get a feel for the overall layout. The outcome below shocked even me: I am surrounded! Anyhow, hopefully, this map is a useful resource that allows people to put the wind turbine locations into their true geographical context.



View Carrach and Cormaud Wind Farms in a larger map


To the best of my knowledge this map is correct. Please submit any corrections as comments. I should clarify that neither of these wind farms is a done deal at the time of writing. Carrach is currently at the planning application phase, and Cormaud is in the scoping (pre-application) phase. Naturally I am not in favour of either application going ahead, as they would devalue the significant time, money, emotional and physical investments I have made in Balintore Castle. To say I feel strongly on the matter, is a gross understatement. However, this particular blog entry is about the facts presented succinctly and graphically. I daresay I will express my own views and feelings at length is subsequent blog entries.


Teccie Details


Don't read any further if you couldn't care less about how the map was produced! 


For Carroch I used the coordinates (eastings and northings) from the scoping report, so the plotting is 100% accurate.

For Cormaud, I took the positions from the scoping report map by eye, plotted these by hand on google maps and then downloaded the coordinates.

It took me a day to write a program to convert eastings and northings into latitude and longitude which google maps needs for plotting. There was lots of trigonometry! :-)

All programming was done in Python,  output was in KML which google maps can display. Needless to say, I found some bugs in Google's implementation of KML and had to program around these.

In the full page google maps display,  I would like to make the menu on the LHS hierarchical so you can switch on/off different wind farms. I tried to use the "<Folder>" tag to do this but it had no effect. Anyone know how to achieve this functionality?


I used the "convex hull" algorithm to create a polygon which enclosed the turbine locations for each farm.


I found the following PNG format icons on the Web, which possess the appropriate transparency for overlaying a map.