PICTURES: A latest sneak peek behind the scenes as the £30 million Spirit of the Highlands Inverness Castle redevelopment slowly takes shape
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Moves to transform Inverness Castle’s historic spaces into a world class visitor attraction are gathering pace.
Our latest sneak peek behind the scenes of the £30 million Spirit of the Highlands project offers an insight into how the ambitious re-imagining of the 1836-built structure is taking shape.
By November 2024, ahead of the planned early 2025 opening, the bare stonework, builder’s dust and wooden floorboards should become the blank canvas for a spellbinding array of light shows, informative gallery and exhibition experiences and evocative storytelling to illuminate Highland culture, folklore, language and landscape.
Complemented by new bar, café, restaurant and shopping offerings, the aim is for the Inverness city showpiece venue to serve as a gateway for tourism all across the Highlands and Islands, while also engaging locals.
Funded from within the £315 million UK and Scottish Government City region deal, the project is expected to play a significant role in the regeneration of Inverness city centre.
With the initial enabling contract to strip back the castle’s North and South Towers now completed, this latest “down-taking” and rebuilding phase of the development began six months ago and has two and a half years to run.
It is being led by Jason Kelman, Highland Council’s principal project manager, who also masterminded the Inverness Town House restoration and improvements.
His remit is to complete the final building preparations before designers move in to add the colour, detail and dazzling artistic attractions.
Mr Kelman is delighted with progress, but admits there have been one or two challenging moments to navigate.
Perhaps the biggest came recently as excavation work to create a new lift shaft in the North Tower hit a stumbling block – by exposing a lack of foundations.
Mr Kelman’s team has now devised a way of digging down in sections and “jacking up” the weight of the entire interior wall before inserting supportive steel beams.
The new lift will ensure accessibility for all visitors to all floors within the castle, including a new roof terrace offering a second spot to enjoy 360 degree views of the city and surrounding countryside. The existing viewing point offers limited accessibility.
Behind scaffolding, the castle's red stone exterior is being carefully restored, with all windows set to be replaced or repainted, while walls have been torn away to allow the original footprint of many interior rooms to be restored.
In line with zero-waste ambitions, Mr Kelman also had to deploy careful thinking on ways to ensure minimal wastage of materials, even where it must be replaced.
One example is the use of broken floorboards from the old courtroom in the North Tower to finish off other nooks and crannies of the building.
There has also been ingenuity in careful pre-planning and early ordering to avoid delays in securing building supplies for each step of the project, while remaining flexible in scheduling works as minor hitches and successes emerge.
“We’re six months into the original programme of two-and-a-half years – and we’re bang on schedule,” Mr Kelman explained.
“As with all projects like these, as it evolves there can be bits where we fall behind and bits where we are ahead of the game – it is a moving feast. We have to continuously adjust and reconsider to make sure we adhere to the main programme and we’re absolutely on point with that.
“We’re still in the messy, down-taking part of the job, as we call it, and we’re all looking forward after the next couple of months to beginning the rebuilding work.
“Thankfully, we have not encountered too many problems, despite a couple of issues with lifts and underpinning the lift shaft.
“That could have proven a nightmare, but we have a plan in place now to move forward and we’ll crack on and get that done.”
Another important consideration is that, with all equipment, scaffolding and personnel in situ, the team only really gets one crack at it to get it right.
A good example is the replacement of original castle roof slates, where it would be far more costly to return in the future to repair any in need.
Instead, painstaking effort will be made to remove every single slate and replace them, with new ones added where needed, as well as new leading.
“When this entire job is done, in the best possible way, we want to be able to walk away and not have to come anywhere near it again,” Mr Kelman stressed.
“That’s part of the thinking behind it being a two-and-a-half year contract. We need to allow time to ensure everything has been done correctly and properly, while building in a little bit of extra time in case we encounter any problems along the way.”
Foundations have now been laid for a modern, one-storey central building linking the two towers, which will host the eating, drinking and shopping experience.
Those in need of refreshment, will be able eat – porridge perhaps – or sup a local whisky near to where criminals and those protesting innocence used to languish in the old court cells.
A 39ft deep historic castle well, the oldest surviving feature outside the building, will be incorporated into the new interior of the central building.
Floor strengthening works have also been completed throughout much of the castle, while plaster has been removed to allow insulation of walls to meet modern green credentials.
Original stone floor slabs have also been discovered under layers of screed, with moves in place to restore original stone floors.
Exterior boundary walls are also being re-pointed and restored.
A network of old chimney flues has been used ingenuously for rewiring work.
The stripping back has uncovered the signatures of past workmen at the castle dating back as far as the 1880s through to the 1930s.
At the top of the main staircase in the old Sheriff Clerk's offices, a home for the Rose Window – the old stain glass Methodist church landmark from Academy Street mothballed since the 1980s at Diriebught Road and Lotland Street.
The former main Sheriff courtroom has been stripped back, with only a couple of public pews remaining in place, and will form a main exhibition space while also serving as a function room for both daytime and evening events.
In a slightly undignified twist for former Sheriffs, the Sheriffs’ library and court quarters in the South Tower will now house some of the visitor toilets.
The old castle entrance will be restored as a grand entrance space for the first time in half a century, while the final part of the redevelopment, once the interior is complete, will be an attractive re-sculpting of the castle grounds including a Gaelic garden.
