State of the internship

I may or may not have mentioned it at some point, but I'm getting on halfway through an internship stint with the National Trust for Scotland and I just have to say... wow, is it exhausting! It's incredible the amount of work and time and teamwork and planning and organizing and so on that goes into something like the Trust, and what I get to see is just one small slice of the pizza-pie.

I've been shadowing a curator there, which is pretty much what it sounds like: shadowing. Quite a bit of standing/following around, a lot of listening, a little bit of doing--but a lot of learning. The days I help out are rarely spent in the office, and usually involve driving to one (or some) of the properties under the Trust's care in order to assess specific issues or work on projects particular to those places. It's a conservation charity, but it's so much more than that. Aside from collections and archives, there are entire estates to manage, holiday lets, historic house restoration projects, wilderness conservation, and archaeology. There's a wold heritage site!

St. Kilda World Heritage Area // via //

Glencoe // via //

Leith Hall // via //

Gladstone's Land interior // via //

Falkland Palace // via //

Inverewe Garden & Estate // via //

It's an enormous volunteer-driven organization (3000+) with a staff of several hundred to do the steering. It's an incredible amount of work, and like any other cultural/ artistic/ heritage institution, it's got its fair share of financial woes and restraints. In spite of this--or because of this--I feel, more and more, that the work this organization does is imperative to preserving the history and natural environment of Scotland for generations to come. Where I am from in Wisconsin, there is no heritage organization that remotely compares in scale or scope, so volunteering with NTS has been an eye-opening experience. Not to mention that it drives home the notion that I really have chosen to pursue something I love.

I may not be with the NTS for more than a few months, but like my museum experience before this, it's teaching me loads about every part of the museum and heritage business. Universally, big organizations can seem a little bureaucratic, they can feel disorganized, staff might not agree with one another's viewpoints, the public can be critical, problems of storage and finances arise, membership needs to be maintained, and so on... but the history (the artwork, furniture, ephemera, etc.) is priceless and the preservation work is paramount. One may learn something practical about how to properly carry a chair (not by the arms or back!) but what's more is where that chair came from, who used it, what its significance is, where it might go... History is an endless, unfathomable well. So in a day's work one learns to communicate with different departments that might have different needs. You begin to piece together what it means to have these properties open to the public, and the challenges that presents. You might move a bunch of paintings one day and sit in front of a computer doing data entry the next.

So it may be exhausting, but the reward is knowing that little by little, even if it feels like there's Just Too Much, history is recorded, preserved and presented to the public.

I encourage you to check out the NTS website where you can search their latest news and also search by location or map for all of their properties and projects. It's a fantastic resource for information on things to do all over Scotland.

Have you ever volunteered your time? Museum or cultural institution? Education? Maybe a community garden? What was the most rewarding part?

Cheers!
Kate xx

Just off the Mile

There's a court outside my window that tour guides like to take their groups through because it's quiet, but also because it's a little bit off the beaten path. That sounds weird when you think about it being in the center of the city, mere steps from the Royal Mile, which is apparently the most-visited part of Scotland annually. But what the tour guides say is true: people don't step off the Royal Mile very often. There are numerous closes (narrow walkways) with winding, zig-zaggy steps, steep walks, cobbled alleys, courtyards and historic houses and museums back there -- and most people walk right on by! All the souvenir shops don't do any favors: their signs often out-shine the smaller ones that denote the passageways or historic plaques, but that's all the more reason to, as a visitor, keep an eye out for the less obvious things. It's what's not in-your-face all the time that is often the most interesting.

So, case in point, a couple of courtyards just off Lawnmarket and literally feet from my flat. In one of these photos you can actually see my flat window, but I'll be secretive and let you guess which one it might be. ;) I was spurred to take these photos because I've noticed recently that a popular photo was going around on Pinterest that someone had captioned 'hidden alleyways of London' or something general like that. It was clearly Edinburgh, and I know because I can see it out my window. So I decided to use that as the inspiration for this blog post, which is just pretty pictures of this wonderful courtyard pair of connecting courtyards and the stunning, very Scottish architecture. So... enjoy!





Cheers,
Kate xx

Dunstaffnage Castle

Wrapping up my brief trip to Oban on the west coast of Scotland, I thought it would be fitting to end this series of posts with the reason I went out there in the first place! That would be Dunstaffnage Castle, which is currently in the care of Historic Scotland and sits on a promontory at the south end of Loch Etive, about 4 miles north of Oban. I'm doing a presentation on this castle and subsequently writing an essay for one of my classes on this and a group of early stone castles to which it belongs. So let me tell you, I've been reading up a lot on Dunstaffnage Castle! But for the purposes of this post, I'll stick mostly with photos and just say that it's totally worth the very short drive/bus ride out of Oban to go see.

Just a wee bit of a background: The main enclosure, or what is called a curtain wall, was built probably mid-13th century, somewhere between about 1220 and 1260 or so... probably. The thing about these old castles is that it's really, really hard to be sure. Historic evidence just doesn't exist like we'd (I'd!!) like, and it's not possible to date stone. So one tries to pick out whatever remaining architectural characteristics there are and hopes to tie them in to the building of other similar castles or what was being done in other locations at the time. In the case of Dunstaffnage, there are a few windows with a tiny bit of detailing on the frames about which has been written tons... because when that's all you've got to go on, well... run with it and best of luck!

It really is a gorgeous castle, having gone through remodels and rebuilds throughout its history. Originally the courtyard would have had timber buildings in it, including a great hall and a kitchen. Later additions were the big gatehouse and another stone house (the one in the pictures with the apparently floating fireplace)... it's really interesting to stand on the ground floor of these structures and try to imagine there being at least one if not a few timber floors over your head. It's hard to imagine when you're being rained on. ;)

But here we go, starting with a sort of abstract shot of the entrance. I love that you can see where the original archway was, and then they made it smaller and built another arch inside.





The photo above is taken from inside the west tower, but in the photo below, the corner where it looks like a huge chunk is missing -- that's the north tower, and is probably where the lord would have lived.  This old boy has been remodeled and rebuilt and ruined throughout the centuries so much that sometimes walls and windows are difficult to make any sense out of. Windows exist in the outer wall that aren't visible inside anymore and stairwells lead to nowhere or start spontaneously where the rest of them have decayed.




The feature that stands out immediately is the huge rock outcrop that this castle is built on. It's just amazing how the walls are sheer with the face of the rock in some places, and creates a natural fortification--extremely difficult for medieval attackers to scale.

 


A short distance from the castle is a chapel that was probably built around the same time. Not much remains of it, but it was probably once extremely gorgeous. Imagine these walls covered in a smooth layer of what's called harl and painted. The fragmentary remaining masonry is gorgeous, though.



Cheers!
Kate x