Anyway, the dry weather enables all sorts of things, not least the erection of our newly minted Dunans signage (pictures of which soon). Many visitors had said the previous signs were unclear, so we have gone for black and white and often. It seems to work and looks really good. We’ve included the new Dunans crest, with phoenix, and we’re now planning more. I’m also looking at innovative arrow signs, or posts. The idea is that rather than get plastic arrows to show the way, we use a chisel to shape the head of our posts into arrows, and then white paint to emphasize the shape. I’ll report back on how that works next time.

One of the other things we’ve been doing is filling in forms. They are endless when you are renovating an historic property, especially when you are dealing with the Scots beaureaucracy. Today its an application for a Business Reference Number (BRN) with the Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate (why they can’t use our company number I am not sure). The BRN is necessary to make an initial ‘Statement of Intent’ to the Scottish Rural Development Programme. Only when the SRDP people have assessed our SOI can we apply to their fund. Sheesh. I’m acronymed out already. It is no wonder business people usually just get on building businesses rather than applying for funding, it is a full-time occupation.

You’ll see four here. There are two black and white ones – one each for dark and light backgrounds – and there are two coloured ones, although the only colour used is ‘gold’ – again, we have created one for light backgrounds and one for dark.

Now evidently, the phoenix represents the castle rising out of the ashes – quite literally – and is a declaration of intent. The Bull is my family crest, and the hounds are both a reference to my family’s coat of arms, but also the long affinity my wife’s family has had to these greatest of man’s natural allies. The castellation at the top of the shield, shows both our steadfastness of purpose, and our clarity of vision, and the quartering between black and white is an indication of the four elements which come together in this project: our family, our friends, our lairds and the surrounding community.

And where will these get used? Well,we’re going to have them embroidered onto caps, shirts and fleeces for our hardy volunteers. These garments will also shortly be available on the Scottish Laird website for all you lairds and ladies to purchase.Watch this space!

We’re also going to provide a second set of stationery with this crest on to give you the option of using the insignia or the crest.

The first major change has been to the Scottish Laird project. This year will see the scheme entering the High Street in a really high profile way in partnership with the premier Gift Company distributor and producer, Gift Republic. We haven’t yet made this public, but presence both in outlets like WHSmith, Hamlyns and Harrods will really put Dunans into a National consciousness which is something we have been desirous of ever since we began the scheme.We’re not sure of the official launch date yet, but when it happens let us know. In the meantime, we have set up a new website for the GR lairds, LairdofDunans.com.

Of course the GR Lairds have galvanised the project so we have a couple of innovations on the way. We’ve set up a Tour of Dunans programme, which will enable Lairds and Ladies of Dunans Castle, Dunans and Chaol Ghleann to get the ‘inside track’ on developments here by walking around the grounds with myself. The idea is that every Laird or Lady gets a free tour with their partner, and any others in their group pay £2.50. The tour will last for an hour to an hour and a half, and will include the Lairds’ and Ladies plots, a close up encounter with the castle, and an introduction to the sites’ two new features which we preparing right now: the Castle maze and the Poisoner’s Walk (more of which another time).

We have also now developed a Facebook page, and are busily integrating that into this website (there’ll be a Facebook box here soon) as well as several new features, particularly the revised stationery, and the ability to register your own email. And coming up soon are several Lairds’ and Ladies’ garments, including fleeces, shirts, caps and badges. Watch this space for further announcements!

Over the coming days we will also add an automated email service for those of you who wish to have a laird or lady email address.

Here’s a tribute to him, and here a photo of Hudson in his prime.

Our New Year was a classic in many ways, not least because there was snow on the ground, the Glendaruels were in cracking (or should that be Craic-ing) form, and my step-mother did a fabulous job (nearly) winning the Hogmanay bumps. Her bruising apparently didn’t fade for three weeks.

After that, the darkness of January hunkered in, and I decided to go out and take some photos to show the Lairds and Ladies how cold it had really been (OK OK so you Siberians and Alaskans know about cold, but for us, in the balmy climes of the North Atlantic Drift, its a big shock).

2009 has been a really great year at Dunans, and 2010 will be even better. We hope to see lots of you next year, as during this we’ve had visits from lairds and ladies from all over the world — from Vancouver and LA, Murmansk and Tiblisi, Canberra and Auckland you’ve come over to Scotland and made visits to Dunans to see your square feet, the tallest tree in the UK (OK OK we know you Americans have the tallest tree in the world — or is it in Tasmania?) and view the ruinous castle and our progress.

Next year will see much of the castle cleared, a feasibility study carried out and work done on the drive and parking — its going to be hard work, but we’re really feeling that we have cleared the decks now and can now move this project forward at top speed.

So many festives to you all, and hope to see you in the New Year!

Both productions were superb. I saw them both as you’d expect, and in each case the use of the grounds to stage very differing productions brought new meaning both to my view of our gardens and of two of my favourite Shakespearean tales.

Prospero’s Walk, the retelling of the The Tempest, adapted by Liam Calgie, was a warmer rendering than I’ve seen before, with Miranda positively oozing sexual yearning, most of which was directed at an audience member ‘cast as’ Alfonso. It was a joy to watch this kittenish character toy with a gentleman in his late twenties who was overcome with … well, performance. He rose to the occasion manfully, positively crowing thereafter at being a member of the Walking Theatre Company (who, if you hadn’t gathered, were putting the production on). Prospero himself, far from directing and manipulating his cast of characters was almost at their service, with Caliban’s coarse, wolfish physicality over-shadowing the old man’s more cerebral, and therefore somehow dissipated sense of threat. The flighty, bitey Ariel was a delight, positively making the audience jump out of their skins at their first encounter on their (the audience’s) landing. And of course this was the most distinctivepart of the production, the part which makes all the TWTC performances so memorable – the audience were part of and inside the action, first by being a crew of the Duke of Milan’s barque, then by being ship-wrecked, and finally by being led by the ship’s mistress into the interior of a strange and wild garden. Flarelit and atmospheric the grounds leant the action a huge sense of atmosphere I’ve never before experienced in a Shakespearean production.

And if the grounds for the Tempest were an ideal setting, then for Macbeth they were doubly so. Imagine, the Scottish play, in the grounds of a Scottish Castle, at night, in ruins, with a blustery wind off the Clyde and the occasional cackle of fox and hoot of owl, and you kind of get the picture. The thane of Cawdor bumbled, moaned, decried his ambition hesitated and then was pushed over the edge into madness by one of the most maleficent Lady Macbeth’s I have ever seen. This was a very atmospheric, sometimes deeply shocking production which entirely engulfed the audience in its bloody, fearsome atmosphere. Superb stuff, made more affecting by the use of disembodied witches, distant screams, cackling and the odd, and very adroit appeal to the audience. We were the woods at Dunsinane, we were co-conspirators in Lady Macbeth’s murderous plans, and witness to a king’s downfall. Great stuff.

Next year I think I have persuaded the company to come back, reprise Prospero, and then go onto the Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Much Ado About Nothing. Put it in your diaries — more discounts for Lairds and Ladies guaranteed!

In his gardens near Tetbury the Prince has used some of the larger examples in his glorious rhododendron collection to create partially covered seating areas. What a great idea. If you have experienced dealing with rhodies you’ll know that they require a deal of control. What better way to utilise the cleared spaces under the canopy for seating? Well, in our case we found a better use: play area!

As you’ll see from the pictures below we now have a (rather wet and muddy) children’s wonderland of what our girls call “chambers” linked by leaf litter paths among the roots and branches of our twenty or so exotics which range along the drive. As the girls and their friends play in the spaces we and they have created, we’re improving the area, and hope eventually to provide a canopy-covered childrens’ play and maze area.