Drum Castle, Drumoak | Restoration Case Study

Our role: Contractor
Client: National Trust for Scotland

Drum Castle is a Category A listed castle whose 13th-century keep, with 70ft solid masonry walls and corbelled battlements, is one of the oldest tower houses in Scotland. For the National Trust for Scotland we solved persistent water ingress at the battlements and roof slabs that was causing damp in the walls of the lower tower.

The challenge

Water was getting in at the battlement walls and the stone roof slabs and travelling down through the mass masonry, causing internal dampness at the lower levels of the tower. Coping stones had been dislodged, failed cement mortars had opened up, and many of the Caithness slabs were fractured, laminated or eroded.

Our solution

We recorded, lifted and rebedded the dislodged battlement copes, and consolidated the wall core by hammering broken clay tile into mortar-filled joints for maximum compaction before flush pointing over. Failed cement mortars were replaced with traditional lime. A concrete drain was replaced in Caithness slab with an integrated carved water outlet, and Caithness slate indents were carved on site to replace every damaged slab.

Outcomes

Water kept out

Rebedded copes, a compacted wall core and flush lime pointing stop water reaching the walls below.

Traditional drainage

A carved Caithness slab outlet replaced an unsympathetic concrete drain.

Like-for-like repair

Damaged roof slabs indented with Caithness slate carved on site.

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