Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

New boiler starts to dry out ancient Highland castle

Work being carried out on Mingary Castle
Work being carried out on Mingary Castle

A modern woodchip boiler is being used to dry out a 13th century Highland castle to enable work to continue on restoring it after prolonged heavy rain.

Mingary Castle, which has been unoccupied for more than 150 years, is a well-known landmark on the most westerly point of the British mainland.

Its owner, Donald Houston, was granted permission to turn the ruin into a residential property, through the Mingary Preservation Trust.

Work is now under way to turn it into a holiday retreat for the rich and famous and it is hoped that it will be ready for guests in the first half of next year.

Tradesmen are getting on well with the £2.3million project, but a prolonged period of heavy rain at the end of October and start of this month had soaked the ancient walls.

Local historian Jon Haylett said: “It rains here a lot and keeping all this water out of the castle has been one of builders’ biggest headaches.

“The main problem is that water is driven into the faces of the walls through the gaps between the stones. Although these are filled with extremely hard lime mortar, it’s permeable, so the water is almost sucked in.

“This problem is general in older, stone-built houses in this area of Scotland, with most houses solving it by having an outer harling of slaked lime and coarse aggregate mortar.”

He added that the castle used to have a harling skin, as bits of it remained on some of the exterior stone, but it was decided that it should not be replaced.

Mr Haylett said: “However, the builders now have a big ally on their side – a biomass woodchip boiler, which is housed in a building set into the east end of the moat, so it will be out of sight.”

The new woodchip boiler at Mingary Castle

The boiler, which is burning woodchips from Ardnamurchan Estate, has now been “fired up” and is already starting to dry out the massive building.

Mr Haylett said: “The north range building has been sealed as much as possible and is already nice and warm.

“Although the heating is still on a low setting, it’s being slowly turned up.

“The difference in the walls is already noticeable. They’re drying out nicely.”

The trust has received donations of just over £251,000 towards its target of almost £2,365,000.

Anyone wishing to donate to the project can do so at www.mingarycastletrust.co.uk