Friday 12 August 2016

The Master Mason

The great walls of Mingary Castle were built by master stonemasons who handed their trade down to the generations of masons who maintained, renovated and repaired it. When it came to the refurbishment which was carried out between 2013 and 2016 it required someone to follow in the tradition, someone with quite extraordinary skills who could do everything from building....

....four-metre high stone walls to conceal a boiler house, to....

....fitting slabs of York stone on roof gables, to....

....repairing the walls and ceiling of the castle dungeon - now, perhaps appropriately, the castle cellar - to....

....re-erecting the sandstone surround of the door burned down during a siege in 1645.

The man who appears in all these pictures is Yorkshireman Damien Summerscales. The work at Mingary is finished, but Damien is staying in this area for a little longer....

....to make his skills available to the community - this patio is a recent masterpiece.

While stonework is definitely Damien's forte, he can turn his hand to many other things, including plastering, roughcast, roof work, ground work, and flagging.

If you want any work done, contact Damien at damiensummerscales@yahoo.co.uk or on 07432 531 399. If you don't live in Kilchoan Damien, like a good whisky, travels well.

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