60 C O N T E X T 1 3 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 4 Lime-coated history The Scottish Castle Restoration Debate 1990–2012 Michael Davis, Spindrift Publishing, 2013, 78pp, paperback, available from the author at 79 Main Street, Ochiltree, Ayrshire, £12.99 including postage or via Amazon Renewed Life for Scottish Castles Richard Fawcett and Allan Rutherford, Council for British Archaeology, 2011, 192pp, paperback, ISBN 978 1 902771 86 1, £24.65 To the plaudits of the conservation community and the architectural profession, the preservation and creative reuse of the ruined 12th-century Astley Castle inWarwickshire won the 2013 RIBA Stirling Prize. In 2002, Historic Scotland – supported by the SPAB in Scotland but opposed by just about everyone else, historians, professionals, national politicians and the local community alike – successfully contested an appeal to prevent the restoration and reuse, as a residence and clan centre, of the ruined 13th-century Castle Tioram on Loch Moidart in the western highlands. Historic Scotland’s reasons included that refunctioning the ruin was inconsistent with the principles of minimum intervention and contrary to the advice contained in various conservation charters. In 1999 Scotland’s heritage agency unveiled the stylistic restoration of the Great Hall at Stirling Castle, complete with its dramatically eye-catching (and archaeologically questionable) buttercup-coloured harling. In 1978, as the Civic Trust Awards assessor for the Grampian Region, I recommended the immaculately conceived and detailed restoration of Harthill Castle in Aberdeenshire for an award. This was downgraded to a commendation, for the reason that there was not a single piece of documentary or material evidence that the all-covering harling – which was a condition of the historic buildings repairs grant, without which the owner could not have proceeded – was an authentic intervention. It was the result of inflexible policy based on the unproven assumption that, historically, rubble masonry in Scotland was invariably lime-coated. One may be forgiven for being confused. Are we talking here about conservation, that never-to-be-spoken word restoration, or – more meaningfully in the case not only of the Great Hall but of the more recently completed State Apartments at Stirling Castle – of presentation directed at increasing visitor numbers to a flagship tourist attraction? Michael Davis, architectural historian and conservationist, has deliberately used the word restoration in his book’s title. His use of debate reflects the controversy focused on the anti-restoration sentiment (what John Betjeman once characterised as ‘antiquarian prejudice’ and Simon Jenkins more recently as ‘warped romanticism’) that characterised opposition to the Castle Tioram project. Clearly the distinction between a ruined castle, albeit fast decaying when seen at close hand but looking solid and romantic from a distance, and a magnolia or cherryblossom-pink restored version is too great a contrast for many of us to stomach. Faced with such a choice of opposites, I would be tempted to agree with the 2002 appeal decision. The two books in this review make an excellent pairing. Renewed Life for Scottish Castles, authored by two historians long associated with Historic Scotland, takes the reader through the story of the Scottish castle, its pre-eminence followed by decline, successive waves of appreciation and restoration, and the legislative and technical background which underscores policy decisions and practical processes today. The book is replete with case studies, some conserved as ruins, others restored and refunctioned. Renewed Life recognises, importantly, that unanswered questions remain. The Scottish Castle Restoration Debate delves more deeply into conservation philosophy, key words such as authenticity and reversibility and their practical meanings, and changing attitudes for and against restoration from the 1960s to the present. Davis lists castles that have been lost or fallen into serious decay since 1945, and complements the case studies presented by Fawcett and Rutherford. Asserting that ‘the future of most historic structures is best served by continued or renewed use’, Davis questions how we can ‘justify that ruined castles are not restored’. He insists that the vital question, to be based on caseby-case research and pragmatism rather than fundamentalist positions, is not if we restore but how. Astley Castle is the most recently lauded exemplar for this. To Davis, ‘heritage in ruins’ signifies failure. He goes further, laying down a specific challenge in the case of preserved ruins that are not protected from the elements. ‘At Linlithgow Palace,’ he writes, ‘the ongoing deterioration of sculptural detail from surfaces exposed to the weather (but which were formerly within the building) is a marked and entirely tragic consequence of the failure to reroof in earlier decades’. Historic Scotland heralded a more open approach when it established the Scottish Castles initiative in 2009, and commissioned a guide to castle and tower-house restoration. It is perhaps symptomatic of the dilemma in which it finds itself, and the pressure it is under to confirm a positive way forward in the specific instance of Castle Tioram, that, five years on, the consultative draft for this guide has yet to be published. The two books reviewed here amply set the scene for a series of debates that are necessary and continuing, and which fit neatly into the theme of this year’s IHBC annual school. Dennis Rodwell, architect-planner, consultant in cultural heritage and sustainable urban development
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