Half way through.....

I can't believe that it already the end of June....Where has the year gone.....

Another month has quickly slipped by and before we knew it it was time for another site visit to Raasay House.

We slipped on our now muddy boots, I wish the rain would go away, put on our fluorescent vests, slid on out protective gloves and donned our hard hats and set off for a walk through Raasay House.

The weather wasn't the nicest so we avoided going up on the roof and stayed under cover inside of the building. The works on the roof are almost finished and we should hopefully see the first stage of scaffolding come down over the next few weeks. We will then be able to see the freshly cleaned stone work, new roof and repairs that ROK have been carrying out on the outside of the building; that up until now have been hidden by the scaffolding. I will pop up some pics once the scaffolding comes down.

With the roof almost completed it has made way for the arrival of the plumbers and electricians. The sparky's and plumbers have settled into their wee on-site caravans and are beavering away running new cables and pipes all over the house. Not an easy job as they are replacing every single piece of plumbing and wiring in the building and adding more in at the same time.

The refurbished windows are going back into place one at a time and look fantastic, its so nice that we will be able to have windows that you can actually open and close properly......

There has also been a fair amount of progress within the grounds of Raasay House, The new septic tank has been put into place and all of the new drainage that goes along with it, so hopefully the back areas of the house won't flood any more. The site for the new activity resource building has also been cleared and is in the process of being made ready for it. The new activity resource building is being built in Glasgow as we speak; this is the completely new purpose built building that will be going within the grounds of Raasay House. It will serve as a base to store all of the activity equipment, as holding all of the shower and changing facilities for our larger groups and have a area where we can repair our boats and other larger equipment in the winter months......

Enough from me and time for some pictures, the do a much better job a showing you what is going on at the House.


Repairs to the fireplace in the wood lounge.


New septic tank in place.


Site for the activity resource building.


Room rewired and ready for next stage.


Window repairs in progress.


New stud work for public toilets.


Room 6 stripped out and new wiring being put it.


New wiring and repairs in the first floor hallway.


New conduit pipe for services being laid.

The new raasay Pier

Its been a while since I have last updated everyone on what is going on with the new pier that is being built on Raasay so I thought that I had better pop up a few pics of what is happening.

The site is now fully set up and the barges have arrived. The barges are being used as platforms so Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd can excavate the bay for the foundations of the new pier. A long a tedious job that involves blasting away any solid rock then scooping up all the loose rock and depositing it on a barge. The barge then takes the rock away...to where i don't know...but never to be seen on Raasay again.

Once the site work is done it will enable the pre-cast concrete ‘lego’ blocks made at Kishorn, Wester Ross will be able to make their way to Raasay.

Here are a few pics of the site and excavations..

Time to start putting her back together.......

Hi all, it has again come time to shed some light to what is going on beyond the metal fence at Raasay House.

The island has been a hive of activity over the last month. With the weather being fantastic it has enabled all of the projects on the Island to move forward quicker. The new Raasay Community Hall is nearing completion, works on the new ferry terminal are ramping up and Raasay House has almost finished being pulled apart and ready to be put back together.

With the end of the month David and I attended out monthly site meeting to be updated on the progress of the works on Raasay House and have a quick tour of the building. We started off by heading up onto the scaffolding where we were shown the nearly completed east roof section of the House. It looks amazing and so much work has gone into repairing the roof.

One of the main problems that ROK have encountered while renovating the House is the current state of the roof. They have had to repair alot of the original roof joist in the house. It is all a bit too complicated to try and explain, but I will say that I feel sorry for the person that had to nail in, by hand, 200 nails into each new joist.......there are probably over 200 joist repairs - you do the math.....

After inspecting the roof we headed into the building to see the extent of the work that has been carried out over the last month. The house is pretty much entirely cut back to its skeleton now. The majority of work that has been carried out so far on the house is rot removal works, stone works and rendering, roof works, gutters and down pipes repairs, window and door repairs, internal alterations. I know it doesn't sound like much, but believe me you wouldn't recognise the house at the moment.

So the next stage of the project is to finish of repairing the roof then start putting the house back together and start installing all of the new drainage, wiring and heating. Some internal repairs have already been started, these are mainly in the form of window repairs. A big job when you consider that there are around 140 windows in the house and they all have to be repaired and restored by hand. ROK can't just pop into the hardware store and pick up a new one....

That's enough words for now, here are some more pictures of the Raasay House refurbishment.


Roof Inspection.....


East wing of Raasay House - roof repairs completed.


The old cafe - completely stripped back to basics now....


Re framing of walls...


Believe it or not - this is the Blue Lounge....


Joist Repairs....


Lintel Repairs....


This was the old boys toilets and showers....


Old kitchen and scullery....

Just to Remind You.....

...Some fantastic scenic photos from last year of some of the landscapes and wildlife that provide the setting for our activities.



The day we didn’t go to sea and caught this misty view from the balcony of Raasay House




The day we spotted a new route on the crags at Screapadale – and didn’t have our gear with us



The day that we drove past the pub - and didn’t go in and went to sea instead



The day we forgot our swim suits - and dove in anyway



The day we decided the house needed a face lift - and couldn’t find the scaffolding



The day we explored the island - and didn’t go up Dun Caan



The day we walked to Hallaig and….



didn’t need shelter on the way…



Then were wet anyway under the waterfall!



The day we went fishing at Inver - and the sea trout weren’t ‘rising’



The day we didn’t play volley ball or go to sea - but had our cameras



The day we decided to eat the vegetarian option in the Raasay House Restaurant




The day we were glad we caught the ferry to Raasay



Hello Stranger….



So glad we went to sea…



‘So good bye and thanks for all the fish’



And lucky to ‘shoot’ some more familiar faces



Albeit a wee bit camera shy!


Watch this space for the real action last year… fun, adventure, and activities all with the backdrop of Raasay’s stunning scenery!