The Mingary Castle restoration blog was written by Jon Haylett, who lives in the local village of Kilchoan. Now that restoration is almost complete Holly and Chris Bull will take over to report on bringing the Castle back to life.

Thursday 18 June 2015

Lights On!

Last week the cutting and laying of the small Caithness stone blocks throughout the central part of the courtyard seemed an almost insuperable task, yet this week they're finished - which gives a good idea of how fast main contractor John-Paul of Ashley Thompson, pictured, and his men are progressing with this project.  In the west range, to the left of J-P....

....plasterers Neil Hobson, right, and the boys from Neil Hobson Plastering are finishing off four days work on site, after which the plastering in here is complete.  Their next job, in about three weeks time, is harling the courtyard-facing walls of the three buildings.  For this, the whole courtyard will have to be scaffolded, so scaffolder John Forsyth will be back to take down the remaining....

....scaffolding round the outside of the castle and reassemble it in the courtyard.

So Chris Taylor, right, and Chris Dickinson are out in the rain and cold clambering through the scaffolding to finish the last of the pointing which remains to be done, on the east curtain wall and around the water gate.

Working in rather warmer and drier conditions in the north range, electrician Tigger is installing lighting in the rooms where the oak panelling is in place - here in the bookshelf in what will be the sitting room.

More panelling is arriving in batches. In this room on the second floor, panelling to dado-rail height is going in to what will be one of the main bedrooms.

Having finished laying the Caithness stone floor throughout the intramural passages, 'H' has started tiling the bathroom within the north curtain wall.

With the oak panelling going in, the second fix electrics under way, and the tiling started in one of the bathrooms, one can begin to get an idea of what the interior is going to look like.  But this is best seen....

....on the top, attic floor where the oak flooring has been oiled and, for the first time, the fitted electric lights can be turned on.

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