Thanks, again, to all who made the Elanvow Interpretive Panel possible.  It was great to have many of you with us for the unveiling on August 14th.  

After investing quite a bit with Board and other donation over the last ten years, we hope to work with HES to arrange funding for a trip to complete the tree surgery and clean-up recommended by Josh Durnan (HES) and Hugh McBrien (WoSAS) from their 2019 and 2022 visits, respectively.   More to follow on this!

We also are looking forward as we prepare for Katherine's Handfasting in Slovenia on October 13th!

Thanks for all your support!

We had a very productive week between August 6 and August 14, culminating in the unveiling/dedication of the new interpretive panel on the island on August 14th.  On August 6, the stone plinth for the sign was constructed by WSDSWA and major tree surgery was done to remove fallen trees laying across buildings 4 and 5.  The large fallen oak across Building 4 was cut back to its stump but remained in its overturned posiion and supported by cut logs (as we had done in the first 2012 project). Since there was a large amount of entrained soil in the root ball, we sought clarification/permission to remove that soil to allow the root ball to either be cut out by hand tools or reset in its original position.  HES confirmed permission and we arranged an additional work day on August 12.   Under Fiona Baker's supervision, the team cleared the soil from the root ball, returning the soil to its natural location, and tree surgeon Liam Mackenzie manually winched the root ball back into its original position.   Although this was an expensive additional work, the result was much more aestherically appealing and better for access and preservation.  In addition,  Liam was able to remove two sapling from the wall heads that had grown too large (during the pandemic) for our manual pruners but still less than 10cm (and covered under the second SMC).  Our annual maintenance trips usually keep the saplings small enough to be trimmed with a pole trimmer, so it was important to cut these two larger saplings that had gotten away from us during the pandemic.

These works were quite expensive and we will need a little time to recover, but we do complemplate at least one more trip to remove several other trees threatening the structures.  These have been identified during Joss Durnan's visit (HES) in 2019 and with Hugh McBrien's visit (WOSAS) on August 14th.  This trip would likely focus on removing an Ash at the north wall of the tower and trees from the outbuilding walls.  We continue to try to lighted the old yew at the wall just northwest of Building 4 rather than removing it, as recommended. 

Note that there is still a hole (fallen rock) in the cellar ceiling, but the archaeologists examined it again on the 14th and decided that no immediate action would be recommended on that.  While we have previously cleared all brambles within the tower, we decided to leave the brambles over the cellar to discourge foot traffic and extra weight on the cellar structure.

Based on feedback from the AllMacfarlanes site, we arranged for artist Deborah L. McFarlin to  create a demi-savage stylistically consistent with the arms we selected earlier and with characteristics of The Macfarlane Battle Standard savage. (Sister/Aunt) Deborah has a fine arts degree and a Master's degree in Visual Information Technology and is an award-winning watercolorist on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Deborah went well beyond this to recreate a digital version of the full arms that will surely be the standard rendition of Andrew's arms hereforward. 

Deborah also collaborated with suggestions on the sign layout and recreated a print-ready version of the sign based on David Connoly's original work after over-a-year of public feedback had been incorporated into the design and content.

We are very grateful to Deborah for all her work!

We are also very grateful to West of Scotland Dry Stone Walling Association for completion of a trial build of the stone plinth for the sign.  John New of WSDSWA and his team are working with Fiona Baker to plan the actual plinth construction on the island this spring.

There are still many details to be attended to, but major progress has been made!   Thanks to all for your contributions and support!

West of Scotland Dry Stone Walling Association indicated they would be starting the mock plinth build in the next 4-5 weeks!   Again, Thanks to John Duncan for allowing stone to be gathered from his mainland property for use in the plinth construction!

We have engaged an award-winning artist and graphic designer to update our demi-savage based on feedback from reviewers, The Lyon Court, and our clan historians.   More to follow on that.

Our chief archaeologist, Fiona Baker, has also engaged to deliver the final paperwork to LLTTNP to confirm direct involvement of the key archaeologists during the construction.

All good signs of progress!

Historic Environment Scotland has notified us of approval for our third Scheduled Monument Consent ... to place an intepretive sign on the island.  In addition,  Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park has approved our application to place this sign with very reasonable conditions that we can easily meet.

West of Scotland Dry Stone Walling Association has mentioned that they are planning to do a dry run constuction of the sign plinth some time in the next month or two.  They have also helped identify resources to transport materials to the island. (Thanks!) We are confirming detals with them.

We have to take time to thank John Duncan, once again, for his support.  He is permitting WSDSWA to collect stone from the mainland of his property. Thank you!

Our goal would be to arrange the construction of the plinth and printing of the sign in late spring or early summer.

Looking forward to completing this in this, the tenth year of our efforts!

p.s.  During review, it was pointed out that the demi-savage was not technically facing in the correct direction in the example arms used.  We created a modified demi-savage with a correct pose and have enlisted a volunteer artist (award winning) to create an artistic rendering of this and to include feedback we gathered earlier on his appearance. 

Apologies for the delayed November update.   We worked closely with both Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park (LLTTNP) to submit applications for the work and permission to place the interpretive sign on Elanvow.   Both groups have confirmed that our applications are valid and have accepted them.  We are waiting for further feedback and response.

We also continue to maintain contact with the West of Scotland Dry Stone Walling Association for sourcing the stone  (not from the island) and construction.

We do still need to work out the logistics of getting stone and workers to the island in an economical way.   LLTTNP graciously provided help in this regard  in 2012, but we have not approached them yet ... pending approval of the application.   We have also been thinking that we would organize many small boats trips with local skippers to transport the stone to the island in advance.   We included a request to be able to transport and store stone on the north beach in our HES application.  Suggestions are very welcome.  Even thought the plinth for the sign is only approximately 1x1.3m, there is a lot of stone.  Volunteers with local boats could help systematically transport the stone in small batches to the island.

At this point, we await approval of the applications but all seems to be set and on-track for construction in time for an August dedication. 

Thanks for your continued support!