This blog post is the official announcement of an open day at Balintore Castle. On Saturday the 20th April 2019 (i.e. the Easter weekend) between 10:00 and 17:00, members of the public are invited to view the newly restored kitchen wing. This is the culmination of 12 years of restoration.
The "Balintore Castle" sign, mentioned in my previous blog entry, was commissioned for the open day although it is something I had wanted to do for some time. Full details are in the appended flyer which you can download here. Please send this around. I look forward to seeing you on the day, which is now just three weeks away.
Sunday, 31 March 2019
Saturday, 30 March 2019
It's a Sign
This week saw the arrival of a sign for the castle. Not only is this a physical sign, but it is also a "sign" of something else. You can probably tell I am taking great delight in the engineered ambiguity of this blog entry's title. What it is a sign of, will be revealed in my next blog entry.
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| it's a sign |
I would contest that a sign enhances the reality, and thus improves the experience, of a visit. It also sets the spelling in stone (literally) which has, over the years, variously been Balentore and Ballintore. This is the castle directly telling you what her name is, not a map or a history book, so this must presumably have the greater authority. Christening is significant in the human domain, and is regarded as a rite of passage. The question is, what rite of passage, is Balintore Castle undergoing?
Glyphwise, only an Old English font would do! This is an example of where one does not make artistic choices, but where the building dictates the course of action, no-doubt coming from her gothic genesis.
Sunday, 10 March 2019
Balintore Castle : History and Restoration
The is an article that the Forfar Historical Society asked me to write - a written copy of the talk I gave there. They wanted 2000 words, and I have come in at around 2,500 - hopefully OK. The slides for my talk were no use for the article as they are just an aide memoire for me to make things up as I go along. Anyhow, I then thought I could cobble an article from material in this blog, but each entry has limited context and I wanted to give the entire "epic sweep" of the Balintore story. The outcome is that I wrote most of the article from scratch and there is new material in here that I have never written down before. Some bits of the blog were inevitably recycled towards the end of the article so apologies for any repetition. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this
Balintore Castle : History and Restoration
When I first encountered the building it was a star entry in Scotland's "Building at Risk" register: an A-listed jewel-box of Baronial architecture. Repair was clearly uneconomic, as the massive oriel window had collapsed. I put the building to the back of my mind, and continued my quest to find a sensible building to restore: one commensurate with my modest budget. Little did I think that years later, I would find myself the owner of Balintore and taking on a restoration that would baulk multi-millionaires.
Discovering the "At Risk" register was the catalyst for looking for somewhere to restore. After seeing the first few pages of wonderful buildings my destiny was fixed. How could such beautiful structures like these be neglected? It was beyond my comprehension, and I wanted to do something about it.
It goes without saying that I like Art and History, but most people with these interests do not engage in restoration lunacy. There must be a larger picture to explain my motivation, that remains ultimately unfathomable. However, part of it is keeping our connection to the past open: honouring the workmen who built the structure; the guests and servants who were part of the fabric, and also the local community for whom the building is their history.
After giving talks in the local area, people come up to me and tell tales of their family's connection to the building. This is like gold dust to me, and I record what I can. In short, between trying to keep my builders paid and legal fights to help save the castle, I am its informal historian and am slowly transferring information to the blog I am keeping on the restoration. Needless-to-say, many generous people have provided information and I am way behind in transcribing this into digital immortality, but I do my best.
Around the year 2000 when I was most actively looking for a place to restore, I saw other buildings at roughly the same state of decay as Balintore. It has been shocking for me to revisit these other buildings more recently, as they really have gone downhill - with repair now clearly uneconomic rather than just borderline. Of course, no building is genuinely beyond repair but few people would take on such a challenge in the wilder regions of Scotland. So while the restoration of Balintore has been painfully slow, the realisation of what the building would be like now if I had not intervened, gives me comfort. There was a definite sea-change the day the building became wind and water-tight. One fight had been won, and there would be no further deterioration under my custodianship.
Of course taking a consolidated structure towards habitability is a further, even more expensive, challenge and this is currently ongoing. You cannot budget for a sensitive, conservative restoration as you never know what damage you will find lurking under floors and behind walls, and patching-in is infinitely more difficult than stripping out and starting again.
The architect was William Burn (1789-1870) who started his practice in Edinburgh, but was so successful he moved to London. His studio was incredibly prolific: being responsible for the building or re-working of over 500 stately homes. Burn almost single-handedly re-introduced the distinctive mediaeval Scottish Baronial style to Victorian Britain earlier in his career. So when Burn designed Balintore very late in his career, it is clear he took all the motifs of the Baronial and lovingly applied these in a devotionary swan-song. To this day, visitors can still point out details in the stonework that I have missed.
The one character who seems to have stayed in the building on a longer term basis is a Lady Langman (1878-1963) who spent time every summer at Balintore. Lady Langman falls within living memory, and by all accounts, though somewhat intimidating, was a "game gal" throwing parties for the local children. Someone I recently spoke to was taken as a little girl, by Lady Langman to the bathroom on the top floor of the castle to see a mechanical doll swimming in the bath there.
Her man servant used to wipe the dry rot off the walls, so that Lady Langman would not see it. A visiting child was told not to comment to Lady Langman. on the green mould growing on the dining room walls. I understand the first undeniable indication of dry-rot at Balintore was during Lady Langman's residency in 1957, when a wardrobe fell through the floor. I believe I have found the most likely section of floor, as there is some rare evidence of repair. We have called this room Aunt Nellie's dressing room, as Nellie was the family name for Lady Langman.
Although no longer inhabited after Lady Langman's death in 1963, the castle was used occasionally by shoot beaters for overnight accommodation into the 1980's. At that stage there were still books, furniture, paintings and crockery. The sale of the castle by the Kinnordy Estate in 1984 without any land was really the end. The building passed through the hands of a number of developers but any good intentions dissipated when the scale of the project hit them.
Piecing together the time-line, the major deterioration of the castle seems to have occurred as late as the 1990's. With around 5 large holes in the roof caused by the skylights falling through and with blocked box-gutters all the way round the roof, water ingress essentially caused dry rot to run riot through the building. A roofer told me that 90% of the damage to the building could have been prevented by simple roof maintenance.
I made an attempt to purchase the building in 1999, expressing my desire to restore the building, but no response was obtained from the then owner. Angus Council embarked on a compulsory purchase procedure around this time. Little did I know this was a legal precedent in Scotland, and arguably in the UK as well, so legal proceedings took an incredible 8 years.
The first photograph looks to be the only one that shows "guests" as well as "staff". To my eye, the three people sitting on chairs on the left, as well as the boy in front are guests. The cap of the seated gentleman on the right and his literal separation from the three guests (social divide?), is instant condemnation to the lower ranks. Here a smiley gamekeeper is photo-bombing the party at the rear, quite an achievement for the 19th century, and one feels that he is very much his own man and would be great company. This gamekeeper appears in more of the photos than anyone else so his changing appearance is a useful cue to putting the images in temporal sequence. The changing ladies' hairstyles is another clue that the photographs were taken years apart rather than in just a single shooting season.
The second photograph shows the brass lion's head bell pull on the right hand column very clearly. Long since gone sadly! The smiley gamekeeper has a little grey in his beard, so I suspect this is the latest photo. All the women have a "bouffant" hair thing going on, that may be Edwardian. I love the wee "grouse boy" who is holding three grouse, each of whom is half his size! There are some surprises at least to me - the sheer number of servants. There are 12 women servants here and that's just for starters and not even counting the men.
The third photo shows a younger gamekeeper, so I suspect this is the earliest photo. This is my favourite as it shows the servant retinue in its full Victorian heyday with cook (ample figure and not wearing a customer-facing lace cap!) and footman (light jacket with tails).
Restoration Photos
The devastation in the vast Great Hall is clear from this photo. It was still open to the elements at this stage and snow lay on the ground. There is no longer any water ingress.
In contrast, the castle kitchen below is shown well on its way to completion. This is just before the screeding for the underfloor heating was poured.
To donate to the Balintore restoration project click here.
by Dr. David John Johnston
Background and Introduction
Background and Introduction
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| Balintore Castle |
Balintore Castle was commissioned by David Lyon (1794-1872) as a shooting lodge for the elite of Victorian society. The building has miraculously survived to this day, through decades of neglect, dry-rot, looting and vandalism.
When I first encountered the building it was a star entry in Scotland's "Building at Risk" register: an A-listed jewel-box of Baronial architecture. Repair was clearly uneconomic, as the massive oriel window had collapsed. I put the building to the back of my mind, and continued my quest to find a sensible building to restore: one commensurate with my modest budget. Little did I think that years later, I would find myself the owner of Balintore and taking on a restoration that would baulk multi-millionaires.
Discovering the "At Risk" register was the catalyst for looking for somewhere to restore. After seeing the first few pages of wonderful buildings my destiny was fixed. How could such beautiful structures like these be neglected? It was beyond my comprehension, and I wanted to do something about it.
It goes without saying that I like Art and History, but most people with these interests do not engage in restoration lunacy. There must be a larger picture to explain my motivation, that remains ultimately unfathomable. However, part of it is keeping our connection to the past open: honouring the workmen who built the structure; the guests and servants who were part of the fabric, and also the local community for whom the building is their history.
After giving talks in the local area, people come up to me and tell tales of their family's connection to the building. This is like gold dust to me, and I record what I can. In short, between trying to keep my builders paid and legal fights to help save the castle, I am its informal historian and am slowly transferring information to the blog I am keeping on the restoration. Needless-to-say, many generous people have provided information and I am way behind in transcribing this into digital immortality, but I do my best.
Around the year 2000 when I was most actively looking for a place to restore, I saw other buildings at roughly the same state of decay as Balintore. It has been shocking for me to revisit these other buildings more recently, as they really have gone downhill - with repair now clearly uneconomic rather than just borderline. Of course, no building is genuinely beyond repair but few people would take on such a challenge in the wilder regions of Scotland. So while the restoration of Balintore has been painfully slow, the realisation of what the building would be like now if I had not intervened, gives me comfort. There was a definite sea-change the day the building became wind and water-tight. One fight had been won, and there would be no further deterioration under my custodianship.
Of course taking a consolidated structure towards habitability is a further, even more expensive, challenge and this is currently ongoing. You cannot budget for a sensitive, conservative restoration as you never know what damage you will find lurking under floors and behind walls, and patching-in is infinitely more difficult than stripping out and starting again.
It was obvious early-on that the building would have to "sing for its supper" to continue the restoration into the future. The original plan was to restore the kitchen wing as a holiday let, and to consolidate the rest of building. In fact difficulties in obtaining planning permission for the kitchen wing, meant that work on the rest of the the building is father advanced that I ever expected in my lifetime: with most floors and windows now put back.
The delayed kitchen wing will be launched as a holiday let during the Easter weekend of 2019, a full 12 years after the purchase of the building in 2007. Talk about funding gaps! I hope that income from the holiday let will accelerate progress. Thereafter is terra incognita in that the original just-feasible plan for the building will have come to fruition. As many people pointed out to me, you have to be happy with the "journey" not just the "end result" with a project like Balintore, and Easter will see the launch not just of the holiday let, but the second great voyage.
The History of Balintore Castle
A miniscule drawing of a building labelled "Balintor"appears in one of Timothy Pont's maps. Messieur Pont is the legendary cartographer who walked the length and breadth of Scotland in the 1580's and 1590's mapping the country and drawing every building of significance. The drawing looks like a medieval tower house, yet is very close to and strangely reminiscent of the present Balintore Castle, with its tall central tower. So clearly the current Victorian Balintore Castle was not the first one in the area. This begs the question, where is or was the old (presumably mediaeval) Balintore Castle? Is it perhaps hidden inside the current building?
The architectural historian Charles McKean visited me at the castle to try to settle this conundrum. I had overslept on the Saturday of his visit, having been at work late the night before. I was awoken by a knock on the door of my tiny caravan, and had to greet the great professor for the first time startled out of sleep and in my jim-jams. This was all the more mortifying as my father had some of McKean's books, so I was aware of his reputation from a young age. Fortunately, he turned out to be one of the most gracious men I have even met, with absolutely no airs, and I treasure the memory of the time we spent together.
The History of Balintore Castle
A miniscule drawing of a building labelled "Balintor"appears in one of Timothy Pont's maps. Messieur Pont is the legendary cartographer who walked the length and breadth of Scotland in the 1580's and 1590's mapping the country and drawing every building of significance. The drawing looks like a medieval tower house, yet is very close to and strangely reminiscent of the present Balintore Castle, with its tall central tower. So clearly the current Victorian Balintore Castle was not the first one in the area. This begs the question, where is or was the old (presumably mediaeval) Balintore Castle? Is it perhaps hidden inside the current building?
The architectural historian Charles McKean visited me at the castle to try to settle this conundrum. I had overslept on the Saturday of his visit, having been at work late the night before. I was awoken by a knock on the door of my tiny caravan, and had to greet the great professor for the first time startled out of sleep and in my jim-jams. This was all the more mortifying as my father had some of McKean's books, so I was aware of his reputation from a young age. Fortunately, he turned out to be one of the most gracious men I have even met, with absolutely no airs, and I treasure the memory of the time we spent together.
He found no evidence of any mediaeval fabric within Balintore Castle, and everything points instead at a pure Victorian confection, The castle sits on a levelled terrace designed to capture the view, whereas mediaeval castles were situated at strategic locations, at road junctions or by streams.
At the end of the day, Professor McKean emailed me to say that he was virtually certain that Balintore House, at the bottom of the west drive of Balintore Castle, was the old Balintore Castle. Balintore House, which was the home farm for the Balintore Estate, looks like a Georgian building on the outside, but this assuredly disguises a mediaeval core.
So the answer to the conundrum was "hidden in plain sight" and I felt such a fool for not making the connection myself. I had spent years, looking for signs of a ruined mediaeval building in the area!
Balintore Estate was bought by David Lyon around 1858 so he could build his own romantic movement castle. Balmoral Castle had been built in 1856, just 30 miles away, so Messieur Lyon was right on trend just as he had been in the fashion department as a young man.
At the end of the day, Professor McKean emailed me to say that he was virtually certain that Balintore House, at the bottom of the west drive of Balintore Castle, was the old Balintore Castle. Balintore House, which was the home farm for the Balintore Estate, looks like a Georgian building on the outside, but this assuredly disguises a mediaeval core.
So the answer to the conundrum was "hidden in plain sight" and I felt such a fool for not making the connection myself. I had spent years, looking for signs of a ruined mediaeval building in the area!
Balintore Estate was bought by David Lyon around 1858 so he could build his own romantic movement castle. Balmoral Castle had been built in 1856, just 30 miles away, so Messieur Lyon was right on trend just as he had been in the fashion department as a young man.
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| the fashionable David Lyon |
The architect was William Burn (1789-1870) who started his practice in Edinburgh, but was so successful he moved to London. His studio was incredibly prolific: being responsible for the building or re-working of over 500 stately homes. Burn almost single-handedly re-introduced the distinctive mediaeval Scottish Baronial style to Victorian Britain earlier in his career. So when Burn designed Balintore very late in his career, it is clear he took all the motifs of the Baronial and lovingly applied these in a devotionary swan-song. To this day, visitors can still point out details in the stonework that I have missed.
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| a water-colour from 1864 - shortly after construction |
I have not fully patched together the chain of ownership for Balintore. When David Lyon died just 10 years after the construction of the castle, his brother William inherited it. The names of a number of shooting tenants emerge from the records including the marvellously monikered Compte de Berteux and Colonel Courage. However, I cannot help but feel that castle was a white elephant. Balintore was never lived in year-round, although that was how shooting lodges operated with occupancy just in summer and autumn.
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| the playboy Compte de Berteux as a young man |
The one character who seems to have stayed in the building on a longer term basis is a Lady Langman (1878-1963) who spent time every summer at Balintore. Lady Langman falls within living memory, and by all accounts, though somewhat intimidating, was a "game gal" throwing parties for the local children. Someone I recently spoke to was taken as a little girl, by Lady Langman to the bathroom on the top floor of the castle to see a mechanical doll swimming in the bath there.
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| the presiding Lady Langman |
Although no longer inhabited after Lady Langman's death in 1963, the castle was used occasionally by shoot beaters for overnight accommodation into the 1980's. At that stage there were still books, furniture, paintings and crockery. The sale of the castle by the Kinnordy Estate in 1984 without any land was really the end. The building passed through the hands of a number of developers but any good intentions dissipated when the scale of the project hit them.
Piecing together the time-line, the major deterioration of the castle seems to have occurred as late as the 1990's. With around 5 large holes in the roof caused by the skylights falling through and with blocked box-gutters all the way round the roof, water ingress essentially caused dry rot to run riot through the building. A roofer told me that 90% of the damage to the building could have been prevented by simple roof maintenance.
I made an attempt to purchase the building in 1999, expressing my desire to restore the building, but no response was obtained from the then owner. Angus Council embarked on a compulsory purchase procedure around this time. Little did I know this was a legal precedent in Scotland, and arguably in the UK as well, so legal proceedings took an incredible 8 years.
I was unable to visit the castle during this period as seeing it deteriorate, aware I was powerless and not knowing if the compulsory purchase would ever work out was more than I could take. Then suddenly and almost out of the blue in 2007, the compulsory purchase came through. The Council had invited open tenders for the building in the meanwhile. Two other parties applied, but my own longstanding application, was to my huge relief favoured. The Council sold me the building in February of 2007.
I am asked how can I deal with the stress of the restoration. Most people panic if their heating boiler breaks down. I have lived at the castle without heating, without water, without sewerage, without electricity and, worst of all, no Internet. However, the stress of this is as nothing compared to the 8 years of the compulsory purchase, which failed 3 times during this period and I was told by the Council each time that it was all over.
Thankfully, the presiding conservation officer at Angus Council was a fighting chap and jumped right back into the ring. Happiness is being able to move forward at the castle, every bucket of rubble moved out of the building is a minor victory and despite the enormous set-backs on the way, something has always been moving forwards and that is all one needs for hope.
Archive Photos
When I give guided tours of the castle, people often ask me about the number of servants. Having studied the servant accommodation, I generally give an estimate of 12. This would have included both the domestic staff at the castle and the ladies's maids and gentlemen's man servants that guests would have brought with them. Census returns show two full time residents: a housekeeper and a maid, who presumably kept the building ticking-over out of season.
I had images in my head of the staff and had daydreams of going back to the heyday of the castle to see what it was like, but sadly knew this was not possible.
However, in June of 2018 I was made aware of that an archive of historic photographs owned by the Storrier family, had only recently been made public. The Angus Archive service scanned these in high resolution for me. These turned out to be simply wonderful and give a glimpse of Balintore Castle in its full 19th Century magnificence. I will show 3 of the photographs here.
I am asked how can I deal with the stress of the restoration. Most people panic if their heating boiler breaks down. I have lived at the castle without heating, without water, without sewerage, without electricity and, worst of all, no Internet. However, the stress of this is as nothing compared to the 8 years of the compulsory purchase, which failed 3 times during this period and I was told by the Council each time that it was all over.
Thankfully, the presiding conservation officer at Angus Council was a fighting chap and jumped right back into the ring. Happiness is being able to move forward at the castle, every bucket of rubble moved out of the building is a minor victory and despite the enormous set-backs on the way, something has always been moving forwards and that is all one needs for hope.
Archive Photos
When I give guided tours of the castle, people often ask me about the number of servants. Having studied the servant accommodation, I generally give an estimate of 12. This would have included both the domestic staff at the castle and the ladies's maids and gentlemen's man servants that guests would have brought with them. Census returns show two full time residents: a housekeeper and a maid, who presumably kept the building ticking-over out of season.
I had images in my head of the staff and had daydreams of going back to the heyday of the castle to see what it was like, but sadly knew this was not possible.
However, in June of 2018 I was made aware of that an archive of historic photographs owned by the Storrier family, had only recently been made public. The Angus Archive service scanned these in high resolution for me. These turned out to be simply wonderful and give a glimpse of Balintore Castle in its full 19th Century magnificence. I will show 3 of the photographs here.
 |
| archive photo 1 |
The first photograph looks to be the only one that shows "guests" as well as "staff". To my eye, the three people sitting on chairs on the left, as well as the boy in front are guests. The cap of the seated gentleman on the right and his literal separation from the three guests (social divide?), is instant condemnation to the lower ranks. Here a smiley gamekeeper is photo-bombing the party at the rear, quite an achievement for the 19th century, and one feels that he is very much his own man and would be great company. This gamekeeper appears in more of the photos than anyone else so his changing appearance is a useful cue to putting the images in temporal sequence. The changing ladies' hairstyles is another clue that the photographs were taken years apart rather than in just a single shooting season.
 |
| archive photo 2 |
The second photograph shows the brass lion's head bell pull on the right hand column very clearly. Long since gone sadly! The smiley gamekeeper has a little grey in his beard, so I suspect this is the latest photo. All the women have a "bouffant" hair thing going on, that may be Edwardian. I love the wee "grouse boy" who is holding three grouse, each of whom is half his size! There are some surprises at least to me - the sheer number of servants. There are 12 women servants here and that's just for starters and not even counting the men.
The third photo shows a younger gamekeeper, so I suspect this is the earliest photo. This is my favourite as it shows the servant retinue in its full Victorian heyday with cook (ample figure and not wearing a customer-facing lace cap!) and footman (light jacket with tails).
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| archive photo 3 |
Restoration Photos
Most of the restoration effort has been on the roof. This is rather unfortunate as for the first few years, people were reporting there was no progress at the castle. The truth of the matter was they could not see what was going on up on high! I bought the building with no knowledge as to the condition of the roof, because at that stage it was inaccessible. The roof turned out to be a curate's egg i.e. good in parts. If it has been in any worse a state, it could have totally broken the budget.
Restoring a turret is particularly demanding of the carpenter's skill. Here we have patched-in to the existing woodwork. The vertiginous topping-out ceremony once the resarking was complete, was one I declined to attend.
In contrast, the castle kitchen below is shown well on its way to completion. This is just before the screeding for the underfloor heating was poured.
In January of this year (2019) a friend, who works at the Landmark Trust, and I made a start at furnishing the kitchen wing. The castle scullery, shown below, has been set up as a "snug" or small sitting room. When I bought the building, its stone slab floor had long since been looted; there was bare earth underneath and most of the plaster had fallen off the walls and ceiling. Did I mention that the roof leaked? My fingers are crossed that everything will be in place for the Easter launch date.
Sunday, 10 February 2019
Fashion and Fabric
Burns Night at Balintore Castle this year turned out to be unexpectedly magical. Internet influencer and Scotland fanatic par excellence, Solveig, wanted to take a few fashion shots at the castle and invited me over to her place for a meal afterwards. I told her she was welcome to take some shots, but that as my vehicle was out of action I would regretfully have to decline the meal.
Solveig insisted that this would not be a problem and arrived at Balintore, with her parents, her boyfriend and last but not least a 3½ pound haggis!
I had a good friend visiting that day who has a phenomenal appetite. However, as the day was so hectic, I never found the time to tell him that I wasn't making dinner myself. And it was only when I was driven by guilt to excuse my absence to him after giving Solveig's parents a rather lengthy guided tour did I blurt out: "Apologies, but the reason that I have just done the super de-luxe tour is that they have brought the evening meal". A broad smile spread across his face!
I lit the castle by candlelight, including some antique sconces in the hallway, which had just been installed the day before and Solveig's boyfriend Jonny piped in the haggis with his mobile phone. Having grown up in Burns country, I mumbled a couple of lines of "Address to a Haggis". Balintore wove her magic again that evening and it was the most special Burns supper I've ever attended. The haggis was phenomenal, even though we were uncertain about the cooking time for such a large beastie. The internet suggested "an hour per pound" but we figured that a couple of hours in the oven in a half-an-inch of water would do as a haggis is already cooked and only needs heating up, and so it proved.
Conversation during the meal turned to tweed and I mentioned I had once photographed a page from a book on tweed which featured the tweed for the Kinnordy Estate which surrounds the castle. However, since then I had lost the digital image. Solveig and Jonny knew and have the book (how spooky is that?) explaining it has been out of print for years, and promised to send me a scan. There is a new edition apparently costing over £100 but the colours in the illustrations are all to pot.
So at long last I can blog details of the tweed local to Balintore Castle. It is a lovely one, somewhat greener in reality than the scan, and in consequence I have been lusting after the local gamekeeper's plus-fours for many years.
It was only relatively recently I discovered that each shooting estate in Scotland has its own tweed - this was from a small exhibit held in Braemar Castle. The book in question: "Scottish Estate Tweeds", I first saw in a small seating area in a hotel where my Canadian relatives were staying on their tour of Scotland. The book revealed that while many of the tweeds are 19th century, most date from the 1920's and 1930's which I found surprising. I guess this is when railways made the Highlands really available to the middle/upper-middle classes for shooting holidays.
One could argue that tweeds are more authentic than tartans: tweeds have a known provenance and are local to an area. Tartans on the other hand were originally not associated with a particular clan just a particular area and the whole "clan tartan" idea is a confection of the era of Sir Walter Scott romanticism.
Of course, tradition and living heritage are how we actually celebrate who we are. Even if the details are not factually correct, there is often a spiritual truth there. Shetland's "Up Helly Aa" celebration is also a Victorian confection, of around 1876, but there's no doubt that the men who dress up as Viking warriors and torch a longship every year have a lot of Viking blood in them.
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| fashion shoot at castle |
Solveig insisted that this would not be a problem and arrived at Balintore, with her parents, her boyfriend and last but not least a 3½ pound haggis!
I had a good friend visiting that day who has a phenomenal appetite. However, as the day was so hectic, I never found the time to tell him that I wasn't making dinner myself. And it was only when I was driven by guilt to excuse my absence to him after giving Solveig's parents a rather lengthy guided tour did I blurt out: "Apologies, but the reason that I have just done the super de-luxe tour is that they have brought the evening meal". A broad smile spread across his face!
I lit the castle by candlelight, including some antique sconces in the hallway, which had just been installed the day before and Solveig's boyfriend Jonny piped in the haggis with his mobile phone. Having grown up in Burns country, I mumbled a couple of lines of "Address to a Haggis". Balintore wove her magic again that evening and it was the most special Burns supper I've ever attended. The haggis was phenomenal, even though we were uncertain about the cooking time for such a large beastie. The internet suggested "an hour per pound" but we figured that a couple of hours in the oven in a half-an-inch of water would do as a haggis is already cooked and only needs heating up, and so it proved.
 |
| the Balintore table bedecked with the out-sized haggis |
Conversation during the meal turned to tweed and I mentioned I had once photographed a page from a book on tweed which featured the tweed for the Kinnordy Estate which surrounds the castle. However, since then I had lost the digital image. Solveig and Jonny knew and have the book (how spooky is that?) explaining it has been out of print for years, and promised to send me a scan. There is a new edition apparently costing over £100 but the colours in the illustrations are all to pot.
So at long last I can blog details of the tweed local to Balintore Castle. It is a lovely one, somewhat greener in reality than the scan, and in consequence I have been lusting after the local gamekeeper's plus-fours for many years.
 |
| Kinnordy Estate tweed |
It was only relatively recently I discovered that each shooting estate in Scotland has its own tweed - this was from a small exhibit held in Braemar Castle. The book in question: "Scottish Estate Tweeds", I first saw in a small seating area in a hotel where my Canadian relatives were staying on their tour of Scotland. The book revealed that while many of the tweeds are 19th century, most date from the 1920's and 1930's which I found surprising. I guess this is when railways made the Highlands really available to the middle/upper-middle classes for shooting holidays.
One could argue that tweeds are more authentic than tartans: tweeds have a known provenance and are local to an area. Tartans on the other hand were originally not associated with a particular clan just a particular area and the whole "clan tartan" idea is a confection of the era of Sir Walter Scott romanticism.
Of course, tradition and living heritage are how we actually celebrate who we are. Even if the details are not factually correct, there is often a spiritual truth there. Shetland's "Up Helly Aa" celebration is also a Victorian confection, of around 1876, but there's no doubt that the men who dress up as Viking warriors and torch a longship every year have a lot of Viking blood in them.
Monday, 17 December 2018
Happy Christmas 2018
Trying to push the restoration of the kitchen wing at Balintore Castle to completion can make one year feel very much like another. For it's Christmas again and the kitchen wing is still not complete!
From looking at previous Christmas messages, I can see I took a large chunk of 2016 off to try to finish the kitchen wing, but then returned to work when more funds were clearly needed. Since then I have been largely away from the building but trying to do things by remote control. I don't need to tell you the frustration of this.
I would like to think, dear reader, that this Christmas is different as for a while it felt like things might be finished before Christmas, because all floors are down, the heating is now up-and-running, the second fix of the electrics has taken place and a new glass screen enclosing the courtyard walkway has been erected.
Greg told me he was dubious about the gold to begin with but that I had won him over!
From looking at previous Christmas messages, I can see I took a large chunk of 2016 off to try to finish the kitchen wing, but then returned to work when more funds were clearly needed. Since then I have been largely away from the building but trying to do things by remote control. I don't need to tell you the frustration of this.
I would like to think, dear reader, that this Christmas is different as for a while it felt like things might be finished before Christmas, because all floors are down, the heating is now up-and-running, the second fix of the electrics has taken place and a new glass screen enclosing the courtyard walkway has been erected.
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| new glass screen: exterior view (unpainted) |
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| new glass screen: interior view (painted) |
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| floor down in utility room - new slate tiles abut surviving flags |
In fact I am not quite sure what things are outstanding as I have not been to the castle recently. I do know that Gregor has been having trouble getting a hold of a suitable flush mechanism for the antique mahogany cistern in the bathroom: the quest has been going on for months. Using reclaimed items for authenticity is fraught with practical problems, that demand bespoke solutions.
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| flush-less but golden |
I wanted a brass and mahogany look in the bathroom. This is where reality cuts in - a brass high level flush pipe is around £400! My plumber gave me a second-hand chrome one and I bought Greg a big tub of gold paint. The cistern brackets are reproduction and cast iron and were a black colour. Again, I told Greg to wield his paint brush. The bath feet were rusty and had once been painted white, again I coaxed out Greg's inner Midas. :-)
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| Greg's inner Midas revealed |
Greg told me he was dubious about the gold to begin with but that I had won him over!
We were going to paint the interior of the bathroom window white in best bathroom tradition. However, this made the room look rather anaemic and clinical. What's more the white background showed up the fact that the bathroom fittings didn't quite match i.e. the antique WC was ivory while the reproduction sink was white. Painting the window in dark brown increased the contrast in the room so much, that you don't see the difference between the ivory and the white. It is continually astonishing to me that you think you know what the decor will be, but being in situ tells you instantly that it is wrong, and some other route must be found.
When Gregor gets fed up of painting or Greg gets fed up of tiling, then some effort has been spent in smartening up the internal access from the front door of the castle to the kitchen wing. You could argue that this is taking away effort from the kitchen wing proper, but it keeps Greg and Gregor busy especially if we are waiting on supplies or another tradesman to complete and of course having a smartened up section of corridor as an approach is good for morale. I had an earlier blog article on getting permission from Angus Council to repair the interior walls throughout the building using plasterboard.
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| lining the approach corridor to the kitchen wing |
I am hoping to spend some time at the castle in the New Year and to help drag the kitchen wing over the finishing line. I am buoyed up by my "restoration friends" who take an interest in progress at Balintore and some of whom are trying to find their own restoration projects. The fact that there are people out there who are still willing to take on this type of challenge is good for my soul. It's more than just networking; it's about survival and anyone else who is driven in the same way irrespective of whether their project has started will know what I am talking about.
I am currently on my fourth contract at Lloyd's of London trying to keep Gregor and Greg (père et fils) in gainful employ. They are not totally full time at the castle, but there is a certain continuity of employment and need-less-to-say an infinity of jobs needing done. There is a classic exchange between Gregor and myself.
David: "Have you got something you can work on?"
Gregor: (laughing) "Yes!"
My contract ends on the 11 January, who knows what is next? The good thing about Balintore is that it gives a long-term structure to one's life. Though, at times one definitely wishes it were not quite so "long term".
I have been bogged down by legal cases for much of this year - the normal stuff - not being paid for one's work and not receiving the goods or services one has paid for. After a particularly horrific few months of intense legal work came to a close last Monday, I was able to chat to Gregor again on the phone. What a joy it was to talk about moving things forward at the castle, and not to be bogged down in seemingly endless legal doldrums, which do not move the world forward a jot.
Here's to getting things done in 2019.
Seasonal greetings to you and your family.
Sunday, 16 December 2018
Period Costume Fashion Shoot
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.
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.
Sunday, 25 November 2018
Sans Watermarking
I wrote a blog article last year on how to remove a watermark from a digital scan of a contemporaneous drawing of Balintore Castle. I needn't have bothered as a very thoughful Jeffrey Sanchez has recently supplied me with a copy of the image before it was watermarked. In a sense, it is the image which holds all aspirations for the building, as it was the one drawn up by the architect's practice for the client and captures the Victorian baronical dream of the Scottish Highlands.
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