​Apologies.  We missed the June post by one day.

The team is in full swing on various summer activities.  Tom reports he is near completion of the recommendations for repairs.  If we don't get over sooner, Katherine and I are planning a visit in September.   David and Fiona are watching for opportunities to get the last bits of survey data.

Even though I missed the Father's Day post that I had intended to do, I can't resist including this photo from the slopes of Ben Vorlich here.

We have also been in contact with an exceptional local craftsman to potentially create Ellan Vhow wooden quaiches from the elm wood salvaged from the October 2013 expedition.   We should be able to report more on this in the coming weeks.  There is a limited supply of that elm wood from the island, but these quaiches will surely be part of our fund raising as we move toward specific repairs on the tower.

Thanks for your support! 

David Connolly spent a good bit of time today transferring 3d modeling files to DropBox to enable the other team members to leverage his work. (Thank you!).  BTW: We may vary between modeling and modelling freely, but our American spell checker will most often correct it to modeling.  We are still hoping to combine David's work, work on the cellar, and Tom/John's work on the tower drawing into a 3d educational model ... and this is what we are calling modeling.

Completing the report and survey with repair recommendations is still the next step for us. This continues to be elusive, but we are getting close.  That then will lead to a third Scheduled Monument Consent application and, hopefully, some more "concrete" work.

Katherine is bracing for exams and then off to Bulgaria and Spain for field schools.

Tom provided the following note ... with full report to come.

​"Though the forecast wasn’t too good, Friday actually started out with sunshine.  By the time we were at the head of the loch it had got cold and windy but was otherwise fine.
 
I put John Sanders (conservation architect) on the park service RIB in Balloch to give him the length of the loch, but drove up to Inveruglas myself and met the boat and some other hangers-on there.
 
We had about 3 hours on the island – long enough for John to mark up our survey drawings in detail – with a comprehensive repairs schedule.  See attached photos of John in action.  I did a bit of a walk-over of the island, took a new set of record photos of the tower – which was looking very fine given the time of year, the extent of previous ivy strip and ivy die-back.  Noticed a few minor things that could be added to our survey drawing set of the tower – some other areas of probable secondary repair (presumably late 19th century / early 20th).  A little new minor ivy growth creeping up from the wall foot.  Some saplings re-sprouting from stumps at the wall heads but otherwise all OK.
 
Good lighting conditions for photography.
 
Water was low.  Had a good look at features at the water line, particularly on the N and NW perimeter.  I’ll look over David’s plan to see whether these were plotted previously when the water was higher. 
 
I also attach an in-progress marked-up drawing of John’s – good luck in deciphering it !
 
We will now get on with digitising the repairs schedule mark-up and circulate that along with John’s written recommendations.
 
Generally a success.
 
Tom"

Even though the weather for tomorrow has improved since the weekend forecast, the outlook is still rain for Friday and Saturday.  Earlier forecasts initially showed sleet and rain with winds near 20 mph for tomorrow with heavy rain through the weekend.  At any rate, we had to make a decision on Sunday and the trip was cancelled.

The team was last on the island on March 16 and a full year will likely have elapsed since then before the next visit. Tom and John are scheduling their visit as soon as all factors permit.

All arrangements are made for a March 10 to March 12 visit!  At this stage, we are just watching the weather.   My plan is to hire a canoe and to visit the island as many of these days as possible.  David has managed a nice overall tower model from the March 2015 data and I will try to get a really solid, complete model of the vault ... to merge into the larger model.  Likewise, I will try to get more detailed models of the windows and other features to merge into the model.  

The key question will be whether the wind makes passage from shore to island via canoe possible safely.  I can tolerate the cold and rain.

We are still hoping that Tom Addyman and John Sanders can make it out for further building assessment soon, but that is only a remote possibility at this stage ... so I will focus on the photogrammetry and modeling.

It has been almost a year since my last visit and weather has hindered our progress since summer 2015.  I am trying to manage a trip in March ... to continue with photography if nothing else.

We received some wonderful information from a gentleman who had visited the island in the 1950's and we are planning to start a campaign to collect stories and information about Ellan Vhow / Eilean A Vow.   If you are aware of anyone with stories or information, please do contact us!

Thanks,
Bruce

Merry Christmas!

We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and holiday rest!

As you can see from the adjacent photo of the Duck Bay Lodge (just north of Cameron House) on Loch Lomond,  the loch levels have been exceptionally high and flooding properties along the shoreline.  Of course, the teams are waiting for low loch levels for the survey of the outer walls at Ellan Vhow, but Tom Addyman's team may still get out to the island as soon as the weather is clear enough for the building preservation assessment.

On the island, Building 1 (at the landing) will surely have been partially submerged, but it has weathered similar loch levels in the past.  The rest of the archaeological features should be on high enough ground to be safe.  If anyone has recent updates on that, please share your observations!   (We actually worry more about Inch Galbraith for short term vulnerability.)

It has been a real pleasure interacting a number of you as the Christmas Holiday has approached and arrived.  It sounds like there have been many challenges and blessings for Macfarlanes around the world.   As mentioned earlier, the Board did donate a branding iron and a limited number of Christmas ornaments were created this year from the Elm wood taken at the doorway of the tower cellar in 2013.  More of this wood is stored in Scotland with the team's tree surgeon and we hope to work more of it on our next visit.  If anyone is aware of wood shop space for hire near Loch Lomond, please let us know.

Praying for lower loch levels and wishing you all a wonderful New Year!

As noted, we had scheduled another island visit to complete survey work on November 16, but we missed our short window of lower loch levels and are still waiting for another opportunity.  In the mean time, Tom Addyman has continued his work to record the tower structure and recently completed digitization of stone-by-stone drawings.   The EVPF Board covered in excess of $1700 for work performed in September (as a donation by the Board to EVPF) and authorized several thousand dollars of additional work.   Currently, two visits are pending scheduled dates.  The first is a visit for final definition of work required on masonry and stone work to preserve the tower itself.  The team there will be Tom Addyman and John Sanders.  David Connolly will be leading the second visit for survey work ... when water levels are low enough to properly record the outer walls.  Tom's trip isn't dependent on water levels and should happen in the next month or so.

We are working on Christmas ornaments.  The  Board is paying to have an iron made with the design shown above for use in the creation of ornaments.  We have an extremely limited supply of the wood from the Scots Elm that was removed from the doorway of the tower cellar in 2013, but we may try to produce additional ornaments from domestic wood.  We hope to spend time processing the stored Scots Elm wood during one of the future Scotland trips so that we will have more ornaments of that wood to offer for next year.

Happy Thanksgiving to those in the States!   Thanks to all for continued interest and support!

Bruce and Katherine

Well ... we were "on call" throughout the summer in hopes that we might get back out to the island when the water levels were low ... but Mother Nature did not cooperate and we looked to September/October.  Tom Addyman and an associate are planning a trip shortly to get more specifics on potential masonry work and reparations.   We may join if water levels are reasonably low and if we can mark some of the outer walls in shallow water.  Loch levels are back down to normal, but not cooperating with low levels.   If not a trip sooner, we are targeting a trip November 16 .. and hoping for low enough water levels.

Apologies for the sparse communication in this period.  We kept expecting to have news of a trip ... and then, of course, Katherine had to head back to U Chicago.  She just missed an opportunity to do some work directly with the OI there, but is working on the Hittite Dictionary project between classes.  We have learned to be patient and persistent over the three years we have been working on this as EVPF.  

The EVPF Board continues to cover the costs of these interim projects.  We will solicit and build more donations to support the next phases and projects after the current reports are finally complete and the next Historic Scotland approval (SMC) is granted.  Designing signage is likely the next major step.  Unfortunately, I haven't made more progress on the 3d modeling of the tower due to time limitations, but will get back to that when time permits.

As we have said, we are in this for the long run!

Thanks for your support!

Bruce