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SPAB
37 Spital Square
LONDON
E1 6DY

T: 020 7377 1644
F: 020 7247 5296
E: info@spab.org.uk

Charity No. 111 3753
Scottish Charity No. SC 039244
Company No.  5743962
VAT No. 577 4276 02
 
 

Cultural Significance

Presented by Dorothy Bell DA PhD Reg Arch

 
‘Cultural Significance means the aesthetic, historic, scientific, social or spiritual value for past, present or future generations.’ Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter 1999
 
According to the applicants evidence the site is historically important as:
  • Principal stronghold for the area until the eighteenth century.
  • Administrative and therefore cultural centre until the same period.
  • Embodiment, in first its abandonment then its role as Government garrison of political and social change before the 1715 uprising.
  • Embodiment, in its destruction, of political and social change during the 1715 uprising.
 
The site is currently important as:
  • The most conspicuous historical focal point for the local community.
  • Its place as part of the scenic beauty, peace and tranquillity of the loch side area.
  • Tourist attraction.
The SPAB argues that:
  • The restoration of Castle Tioram would obliterate evidence of its changing role in public Highland life.
  • The proposed visitor centre on site would necessitate destroying the raw evidence of the place’s historic importance to be replaced with a curated, sanitised, interpretation of its history.
  • Furthermore the road access and services needed for the restoration and re-habitation of the site would destroy its peace and tranquillity.
  • As a peaceful and tranquil site the castle currently acts as a tourist attraction for those tourists seeking peace and tranquillity.
  • International archaeological practice now recommends that the best research is non interventive and leaves the evidence intact.
  • Emotional significance to Scots, both locally and internationally would be retained by unobtrusive consolidation.
  • The site’s emotional significance is vulnerable to conspicuous individual ownership, ie as an individual’s domestic private property, nor would such a use do anything but denigrate its former place as political and administrative centre.
  • The site’s romantic qualities are enhanced by its decay. Roads, fences, signs, new roofs, electricity, security systems would nothing to enhance its aesthetic qualities.
  • Large scale touristic activities would cause the destruction rather than retention of existing value.
  • Reviving the site’s importance as a cultural centre could take place with minimal disruption by using the ruins as a back drop to small scale concerts and meetings.