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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
 
 

Past Events

Visit to Barry Mill, nr. Carnoustie, Angus
 
Join us this Spring for a guided specialist tour of Barry Mill. This 3-storey red sandstone building dating from the 19th century is water powered meal mill, which last worked commercially in 1982. It was the last of its kind to work in Angus and is now a National Trust for Scotland property. Delegates will have the opportunity to view a milling demonstration performed by the caretaker using the original working machinery, grinding animal feed! Refreshments will be provided.
Date: Saturday, 19 April 2008.
Time: 10:00am for 10:30 start.
 
 
Walking Tour of Glasgow Merchant City
(Photos of our tour)
The SPAB in Scotland invite you to come and explore the sites of one of Glasgow’s oldest districts. Delegates will be led on a specialist walking tour by Liz Davidson, Project Director of the Merchant City Townscape Heritage Initiative, a multi-agency urban regeneration programme in Glasgow. The tour will inform on challenges of regeneration in the area, and highlight the rich history and architecture made famous by wealthy of tobacco lairds and traders. Not to be missed!
Date/Time: Saturday, 16 February 2008, 14:00-16:00.
Location: Meet outside Merchant Square entrance, off Candlerigg. Look for the SPAB Flag!
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in Scotland
Annual General Meeting
Saturday 27 October 2007 12:00 pm
(See our Photos)
The picturesque village of Dunkeld is an ideal setting for the SPAB in Scotland AGM. Once the ancient center of the Christian church in Scotland and a Royal seat, Dunkeld suffered during the Reformation and was destroyed in a 1689 Jacobite battle. Dunkeld enjoyed a brief period of re-gained prosperity when it was rebuilt in the 18th C as a market town and centre of commerce. However, by the mid 20th C, most of the buildings were abandoned and ruinous.
 
Today's Dunkeld is a tranquil rural village with whitewashed shops, cottages and hotels. A great deal of work was undertaken in the 1950s and 1960s by the National Trust for Scotland and the Local Authority to restore many of the older buildings on Cathedral Street and adjacent to the Mercat Cross. Under their direction and aid from initiatives such as the Little Houses Improvement Scheme, Dunkeld survives as one of the most complete 18th C towns in Scotland.

As a compliment to the AGM, a walking tour of the surroundings, including the 18th C ‘Little Houses’, will begin at 1:00 pm at the Cross in the village centre (or in the Taybank Hotel pub if it’s raining!).  Post tour, delegates will have the opportunity to visit recently restored Ossian’s Hall, in the grounds surrounding the Hermitage near Dunkeld, and hear a brief of the recent work completed there by Benjamin Tindall Architects.
 
*AGM is FREE, venue is The Taybank Hotel, Tay Terrace, Dunkeld, 12:00 pm. 
**Dunkeld Walking Tour is FREE for SPAB Members
 
 
SPAB in Scotland - Visit to Callart house, Scottish Highlands
Saturday, 1 September 2007, 11:00 - Late afternoon
(See our photos)
Callart House is an elegant B-listed Georgian mansion built on the northern shores of Loch Leven. Designed by architects William Fraser and William Cameron for Sir Duncan Cameron of Fassifern c.1835-1837, the house also has several early twentieth century additions and alterations in the Arts and Crafts style, and is one of only two houses by Fraser and Cameron left in Locharber region of the Highlands.
 
The Callart policies include a small steading and a Locharber bank barn, one of the finest examples of its type - built to make use of the slope of the land with a raised threshing area above and separately accessed stable accommodation below. The whole composition is set in mature woodland with a ha-ha, now sadly overgrown, once providing a commanding view across Loch Leven to the hills of Glencoe.
 
Callart House has been unoccupied since the 1940's and though neglected, much of its original detailing survives intact. Of all the country houses in Locharber, Callart is one of the most opulent, with its apricot silk wall hangings, gilded cornice-work and finely grained paneling.
 
The visit will include a guided tour of Callart House and surrounding buildings. Currently undergoing major roof works, this is a unique opportunity for the curious to visit a building in need of significant repair, and prior to restorative works on the interiors commence. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Please bring suitable clothing for the terrain and weather.
 
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in Scotland
&
RICS Scotland Building Surveying Faculty
 
Invite you to a series of lectures/ CPD* on
Historic Building Maintenance
Tuesday, 1 May 2007
Heriot-Watt University 
 
As a part of our ongoing commitment to historic building maintenance, the SPABiS, with funding support from the RICS, is organizing a series of lectures on the evening of Tuesday, 1 May 2007, hosted by Heriot-Watt University, School of the Built Environment.
 
The talks will include a variety of topics relating to maintenance of traditional buildings, presented by an illustrious line-up of speakers. The event will commence at 5:00 p.m. in Room 3.07 of the Edwin Chadwick building and is expected to finish at 8 p.m., snacks and refreshments will be provided at the interval. To cover the cost of the evening, we request a payment of £20 per person. This event is not to be passed up, for homeowners and professionals alike!
 
Itinerary
5:00  Martin J. Hadlington- Introduction
SPABiS Convenor, RIAS Conservation Architect, SPAB Scholar 1989
5:05  Harriet Devlin- “European models in preventive maintenance.”
Lecturer in Historic Environment Conservation Ironbridge Institute, Churchill Fellowship award
5:35  James Douglas- “Maintenance Theory.”
Lecturer & Course Leader in Building Surveying Heriot-Watt University
5:55  Dr Graeme Bowles- “Life Cycle Costing.”
Senior Lecturer & Course Leader MSc Construction Management Heriot-Watt University 
6:15 Break
6:45  Alan Gardner- “The need for old buildings to breath.”
Alan Gardner Associates, SPAB Technical Committee, SPAB Lethaby Scholar
7:15  Bill Revie- “Specialist surveys for building maintenance: Infrared Thermography & Radar.”
Construction Materials Consultants Ltd
7:50-8:00 Open Discussion
 
*This event is intended to assist those with Continuous Professional Development requirements. Responsibility for judging relevance lies with the individual.
RUINS DAY, LOCHBUIE HOUSE AND MOY CASTLE, ISLE OF MULL, 31 MARCH 2007 (Photos of our day)
 
The climate on Mull is changeable and rarely predictable, but Saturday 30th March saw beautiful cloudless blue sky as SPAB in Scotland paid a visit to Lochbuie House to meet the owners Jim and Patience Corbett. We were there to see both the house and its policies but principally to view the current consolidation works being undertaken to Moy Castle, the ancient home of the McLane’s which stands nearby.
 
Moy Castle dates principally to the 14th century and is a magnificent and intriguing example of the Scottish defensive tower house. It has thrown up a series of interesting and bewildering finds since the works began. Internally there are two large barrel vaults, one and above the other and set at right angles, in addition there are two subsidiary vaults adjacent to each of these, but set at different levels. There is also a good compliment of narrow twisting stairs, dark nooks and crannies, and a bottle dungeon!
 
The condition of the tower had become a matter of concern and Jim Corbett decided to instigate a programme of works to secure the monument for the future, whilst ensuring that only the minimum necessary would be done. Under the expert care of Duncan Strachan, master mason, and his team, together with conservation architect and former SPAB scholar Martin Hadlington, the most urgent works to stabilise the structure and prevent the collapse of stacks and gableheads at the top are now nearing completion.
 
We were therefore treated to a rare opportunity to climb up to the wallhead to see at first hand the consolidation work which has been undertaken, not least the breathtaking reconstruction of a chimneystack from the inside, whilst the stones above may have fallen at any moment. The works are clearly expertly done and very much in the SPAB philosophy with traditional materials and methods and discernible difference between old and new. The experience was made all the better by having Martin and Duncan on hand to discuss and explain the issues and challenges which have arisen during the project, which led to an impromptu discussion regarding the differences between restoration and conservation.
 
The second part of the day was a tour of the policies of Lochbuie House by Jim Corbett, who took us to see the prehistoric stone circle near to the house, the only one on the island, as well as a 19th century Episcopal estate chapel and the McLane Mausoleum, where the breathtaking tranquillity and beauty of the setting were more apparent than ever. The tour also gave the opportunity to see the challenges and rewards of running an estate in the modern world.
 
The day was further enhanced by a delicious lunch provided by Patience and served in the dining room of Lochbuie House. On that note we can only therefore express again our warmest thanks to Jim and Patience for their magnificent hospitality.