Client: Historic Environment Scotland
Location: Linlithgow
value: £20,089
Clansman Interiors are currently undertaking a refurbishment project for Historic Environment Scotland. This consists of the refurbishment of washrooms across seven castles, palaces and abbeys throughout Scotland.
The locations include: Blackness Castle, Craignethan Castle, Jedburgh Abbey, Newark Castle, Linlithgow Palace, Dumbarton Castle and Rothesay Castle.
Linlithgow Palace was amongst the first projects to be completed. The Palace is situated near Edinburgh in Linlithgow, Scotland and was the primary location for Kings and Queens of Scotland during the 15th and 16th century. The Palace is perhaps most famously known as the birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots who became the youngest monarch at only 6 days old after her father’s death in 1542. Mary, Queen of Scots occupied Linlithgow Palace from time to time during her reign as Queen of Scotland.
The Palace was burned down in the 1970s; however, Historic Environment Scotland now conserves the Palace as a visitor attraction.
Client Requirements:
As with Blackness Castle, Linlithgow Palace is an A listed historic building therefore comes with intricate challenges.
A washroom refurbishment was to be carried out by Clansman Interiors at Linlithgow Palace.
As stated, working on historic buildings comes with a variety of challenges and particularly with this one we had to avoid damaging any of the original stonework.
The first challenge faced was having to get the cubicles and IPS panels re-agreed with both the architects and Historic Environment Scotland as the original specified manufacturer went out of business only days after our orders to them had been placed. This was resolved successfully by Clansman Interiors.
The original washrooms had to be stripped out. During this a few challenges were identified which is common when working in old buildings.
As the Palace is a historic listed building, we were unable to fix anything into the actual stone work. All fixings had to be carefully placed into the mortar between the stonework.
The timber skirting had to be scribed around the existing stonework as best as possible and could not be caulked to a finish as this may have damaged the stonework.
The ventilation ducting had only one route out through what we believe is an arrow slit which would have been used when defending the Palace.
Key features of the project
Due to the size of the washroom we were restricted to having only one trade on site at a time as no more than one person can fit within the washroom. Thankfully this project ran at the same time as the Blackness Castle project which is approximately 15 minutes away and we could coordinate the resource between both sites, therefore helping both continuity of work and reducing costs.
Overall the project was completed successfully, and a quality finish was achieved giving the Palace a modern facility in an ancient building.
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