When we commissioned a quadcopter flyover for 3D modeling of the island, the folks at Aye in the Sky captured a bit of video ... which is now shared on the home page.

We received, this week, what we hope is the last invoice from Simpson & Brown on the Standing Buildings assessment and we are hoping that this signals that we now definitely have all information needed to complete the HES report for the work to date.  The EVPF Board plans to cover this 1800 GBP invoice without using any donated funds.

The Historic Building Record provided is very thorough and suggests the tower was likely two or two and a half stories above the cellar with gabled roof, overhangs on the north and south, possibly with bartizans.  It seems to be simple, but indicative of lairdly status.  No evidence contradicts Nesbit's report of construction in 1577 and all seems to be consistent with reports through the ages ranging from "elegant" to "a pretty good house with gardens" in the mid 18th century.

More to follow ...

Happy Hogmanay and a Happy New Year to all!

Another two months have passed too quickly,  Reports were recently updated with requested edits by Tom and Simpson & Brown.  Fiona is leading the effort to pull together the consolidated report together ... all in between other exciting international travel.

2019 is the target year for significant work on the island and tower.

​Happy New Year 2019!

September has come and gone without an update. Apologies.  There have been a few distractions in the intervening weeks.

As mentioned earlier, the August 9-12 visit was productive with good cleanup of tower and grounds foliage.
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On this trip, we also picked up the wonderful "proofs" created by Paul Hodgkiss of Hodgkiss Designs (Glasgow) from the Elan Vow Elm. This is wood salvaged from the elm that was threatening the cellar vault and that was removed under SMC by tree surgeon, Liam Mackenzie in 2013.  We stored a much of the wood as we could.  Paul's team kiln dried a portion of the wood and created prototype of quaichs, sgian dubh, food boards, and a few other items. These "proofs" are of exceptional quality and Paul's team is exceptionally skilled.

From our discussions during the visit, it was clear that our Elan Vow Elm was a challenge to work with ... with stories of "exploding quaichs" (while turning) and extremely labor-intensive fitting for the sgian dubh blades and handles.  Even the food boards were a challenge with resin pockets to contend with.  Paul and his team persisted with a commitment and an integrity rarely found in business or art these days.  Paul admitted that his production cost was several times the funds provided by the Board for these proofs.  We are eternally grateful to Paul and his team for following through and providing these beautiful works of art.   We certainly could not ask him to produce more at the current production costs, so these proofs are now one-of-a kind art works.  Our original intent was to offer these to donors as Thank You gifts for those able to make larger donations.   If we are able to propose simpler designs (perhaps with silver handles and lips on the quaichs, for example) at a cost that makes sense for Paul's business, we may try produce more.  Paul is graciously holding the remaining Elan Vow Elm in storage for us.  If you ever have an opportunity to thank Paul, please do. Thank you!

We should note that we had been continuing our conversations with the Court of the Lord Lyon about logos and arms while the proofs were being worked on.   The cost to establish and maintain unique arms for EVPF is reasonable, but more than the Board can justify at this stage in the work.   The arms on the proofs are, of course, the arms of the Chief of the Clan Macfarlane and a diamond with 1577 was superimposed in front of those arms for these proofs.  If we do produce more, it is not clear yet what logo we would use, but we don't plan to pursue unique arms at this point and the arms of the Chief of the Clan Macfarlane will be acknowledged, of course.

Thanks to all for your continue support!

There doesn't seem to be a "good" time to get back to Elan Vow with other plans, but we'll make a trip anyway, August 10-12, to do some foliage maintenance and trash pickup (if nothing else).

Of course, we'll meet with Fiona and, perhaps, Tom.  We may miss David on the days we are visiting.  We will progress the reporting and update the timeline for completing that ... and the next Scheduled Monument Consent application.

Many thanks to Joss Durnan, our Chief Casework Officer at Historic Environment Scotland, for confirming that our Scheduled Monument Consent is valid and in full effect and that we continue to be authorized to do maintenance work on Island I Vow per that SMC.

Travel has been difficult this summer so far, but we still intend to make a visit for foliage maintenance ... and just for the pleasure of the visit.

The standing buildings report has now been edited and is being consolidated with the base report for submission to HES.

We have also crafted a number of items from the elm taken in 2013 from the doorway of the tower cellar and have conferred the the Court of the Lord Lyon on appropriate markings on the items.  These include quaiche, sgian dubh, and serving boards, for example.  Glasgow craftsman, Paul Hodgkiss, has created these for us and we are refining the designs.

The long journey continues and we thank you for your on-going support!

EVPF is still here and is still proceeding with work on the island.  We do still have challenges getting one critical piece of the HES report completed for the second SMC, but this is a side-effect of having  renowned experts on the team who are in high demand.   We have specific goals for the summer ... with completion of the HES SMC report at the top of the list.   Please feel free to contact us with any questions or suggestions!

Apologies for the gap in blog posts.  Three trips have been planned and re-scheduled or cancelled in the interim.  Conflicting travel and other complications make another trip unlikely until mid-summer. The completion of the standing building assessment and final report are the progress-limiting steps in completion of the second SMC work and submission of the third SMC.

There has certainly been lots of communication and activity since January.  Fiona made a presentation to a local heritage society on March 21st and that was very well received (Thanks). 

We will say here, again, that we are grateful for the support and coverage in the published articles that arise from these types of interactions.  It is very nice to have local Scots say nice things about the American members of the team, but we will go on record here, again, to say that we repeatedly object to the notion that the projects and efforts of EVPF are American-sponsored or American-led.   The most important members of the team are the three local Scottish archaeologists and the extended team includes local Rangers, Tree Surgeons, and Academics.   We felt that both recent articles put way too much emphasis on the American members of the team.   We were able to arrange some changes in both recent articles, but the authors certainly have the right and have exercised their right to report their interpretations.   While it is true the the EVPF Board has sponsored most of the work since 2013, donations from around the world have provided the support to the works on Elanvow and we think it would be a disservice to our international donors to suggest the work is American-funded.  On the latter point, the authors of the most recent article graciously agreed to change the electronic text, but the printed text had already been committed.   Again, we are very grateful for the support and coverage.

The final draft of the site map and survey for the report is included on our home page.

We continue to mine the Hill Collection for information relevant to Elanvow research or of general value.   That has also been designed as an opportunity to do some personal technical development in python programming, computer vision, and in standards for electronic presentation of historical documents.  This is in support of the Muniments projects led by Preston McFarland and Peter McFarlin ... independent of any clan society affiliation.  Morag Cross has been helping us locally with this and we are very, very grateful for all her help!

We will continue to press to complete the second SMC report.   We are approaching our sixth year as EVPF and hope to move on to the third SMC by then.   

Since we believe our site was being electronically probed (a dozen small and unusual donations), we still have donations disabled at present.  We have created some unique items from the Elm wood taken at Elanvow in 2013 and plan to offer those as "Thank You" gifts for special donations when we start formal fundraising for SMC 3.  

Many Thanks for all your support and interest!

We wish all a wonderful New Year!

The "Name" chapter of the Historic Environment Scotland report is "in review" and we hope to compile the other sections for the experts early this new year.

Thanks for your continued support!