Refurbishmnet update........

Yet another month has gone by and progress on Raasay House continues to steam ahead. David and I headed up to Raasay House yesterday to attend the monthly site meeting. As usual we put on our steel capped boots, fluorescent vests and hard hats and then where escorted around the building.

As expected there is a fair amount to work being carried out on the house, and ROK are really starting to step up the project. I thought the building looked like a construction zone last time, but wow, its looks like a bomb has gone off inside it now. Some of the rooms have been stripped back to the original bare stone, some of which hasn't seen the light of day in over 100 years. The harling has been removed from the back section of the house, all of the bay windows at the front of the house have been exposed to check them, the old instructors office has been totally stripped back to bare walls (it doesn't even have a floor at the moment....).

Its amazing to see Raasay House being slowly peeled open and exposed, the House is showing some of it secrets and throwing in some very unexpected finds. For example during the stripping out of the old instructors office a huge metal girder was found. This was essentially holding up the floor above and looks like it has came straight from the Forth Rail Bridge........

Work on the project is really expected to start shifting up a gear now, ROK are hoping to start erecting the next stage of scaffolding on Monday. This next stage will have the whole of Raasay House covered in scaffolding, that will be a sight to see.......This will hopefully enable ROK to sort the roof quicker and make the building watertight to enable then to start focusing on the internal work.

Here are a few photos from our site visit yesterday......

Harling being removed from the rear of the house.

This was the boys shower room......

Instructors office......Can you see the girder that looks like
it belongs in the Forth Rail Bridge......WOW!!!!!!

Easter Egg Hunt

We went to an Easter egg hunt on Saturday and it reminded me off all those Easter egg hunts in the grounds of Raasay house. The excitement and tension as every child on the island would arrive in time for the hunt at the "Big House". The build up before hunt with children being restrained from rushing off to search.

All the children sitting on the kerb stone of the drive until David shouted go, the mad dash by the older ones and the stumbling toddle of the little ones as they rushed into the grounds at top speed missing the first eggs and often standing on others in their excitement!

The eggs glistening with colour, nestled in daffodil clumps, delicately balanced on branches or peaking out of mossy crevices in the garden wall. Better still, cradled in some three year old's hand.

Then the whistle would blow and back everyone would dash clutching their bags of mashed up hard boiled eggs of every colour and interspersed with sticky chocolate eggs & bunnies wearing only half their silver suits for the big count and the announcement of the winning bag.

Then as the on-lookers eat delicious chocolate cake or various other café delights the hunt for the giant elusive Golden Egg would start. Clutches of real hens eggs and any other strange wonders that that the children had discovered.

The sun always shines on the Easter egg hunts in Raasay, even on rainy days!

(No one has found that Golden Egg yet!)

Another Week Gone By

Managed to get the office set up in the village so things are a bit more stable now. All the usual contact address phone numbers, email etc. are back on line. Gets us all out of the small temporary office in Greg and Kirstins spare room, so now we all have a desk again!

Greg and Kirstin also moved into a bigger house in the village at the weekend.

As regards Raasay House, things are still progressing and more workers are on board. Lead detail hold ups have been overcome and as such the roof is once again moving forward. RHCC have employed the Scottish Agricultural College to progress the walled garden as regards its future development. They are also in the process of getting the woodland that they own sorted.

The ferry terminal site is evolving with more and more plant appearing on the island.

All go on Raasay!

Any guesses as to where the picture is of/from? Email us your answer for the chance to win a great prize.

Raasay Progress

Another week starts and the lights are still the spanner in the works! How much time and effort does it take to get them sorted to everyone's satisfaction? We really wanted to be forward thinking with them, being energy efficient, nice looking, fit for purpose etc, but, there seems so many conflicting inputs we are all a bit confused! If you have any ideas/expertise to get us over the impasse please tell us ASAP.

David,Freya, Finn and Leia are in their new house and enjoying the experience outside Raasay. Finn has fitted into the school effortlessly considering the protestations beforehand. He gets Art, Swimming, Music, Drama every week which he enjoys. He has made plenty new friends and I am sure they will soon never be out of the house. Leia goes to Gaelic nursery and now has more Gaelic than Mum and Dad!

Getting nearer to the "Comrie" Extravaganza so the usual pre-season preparations are well underway.

Better go and tackle the lights etc. etc

Turf cutting for new Raasay Ferry Terminal

Its been a wet and windy week here on Raasay, but the rain managed to stop for a brief moment today. As you may or may not be aware work is about to commence on the construction of the new ferry terminal at Chruchton Bay, below Raasay House.

To mark this occasion the chairman of transport, representatives for highland council and contractors from Balfour Beatty civil engineering performed a turf cutting ceremony with the children from the Raasay Primary School.

It was a low key even that lasted about 20 minutes before everyone went for a well needed cup of coffee to warm them up.....

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of updates but it has been a busy time for us.. You would of thought that being closed would mean a smaller work load...well that's anything but true. We are busier than normal to be honest.

Anyway we had a site visit to Raasay House last week to check on the progress of the redevelopment. We drove up to the house, checked into the ROK site office where we had to put on our steel capped boots, fluorescent vests and hard hats and then escorted around the building; the building is currently in a pretty sad state and basically a building site.

Parts of the roof have been exposed to sort out rot problems, walls have been demolished, floor boards raised, ceilings pulled down, courtyards dug up the list goes on. The works to the east wing roof should be finished soon and then the scaffolding will be erected around the front of the house and the west wing. I will upload some photos once that has happened. In the mean time enjoy a few of our pics from our site visit last week.


The old Kitchen...now demolished and ready to make way for the new office....



Inspecting the the east wing roof....hmmm......



New entrance way has been made into the main dining room.....



Who would of thought that the staff shower room had a fireplace in it....



Pic of scaffolding on the east wing....