Castle masonry and roofing:

Inverness Castle

Inverness · 2025

Our role: Specialist masonry, slating and scaffolding sub-contractor to Bancon Construction
Client: The Highland Council
Main contractor: Bancon Construction
Architect: LDN Architects
Value: Over £2m
Programme: From September 2022
Scope: Scaffolding, stone cleaning, defrassing and removal of cement repairs, stone replacement and repair, lime mortar repointing, roof slating and leadwork, boundary and terrace wall repairs

Inverness Castle is the red sandstone landmark above the River Ness, a Category A listed building being restored and converted by The Highland Council into a new visitor destination. Bancon Construction was the main contractor, and we were appointed as sub-contractor for the stonework, masonry and cleaning, the slating and the scaffolding. Our crews worked across the north and south towers, the roofs and the castle's surrounding boundary and terrace walls.

Inverness Castle: drone flyover of the restored castle

Inverness Castle, Castle Hill, Inverness — photograph 1

Inverness Castle, Castle Hill, Inverness — photograph 2

Inverness Castle, Castle Hill, Inverness — photograph 3

Inverness Castle, Castle Hill, Inverness — photograph 4

Inverness Castle, Castle Hill, Inverness — photograph 5

Inverness Castle, Castle Hill, Inverness — photograph 6

The challenge

Decades of cement-based repairs had left the stonework hard, sealed and damaged. Behind them the sandstone was soft, fractured or spalling, and the rubble boundary walls had lost their lime bedding, allowing soil and vegetation to build up inside the wall. Loose and dislodged copes, corroding iron fixings and open joints were letting water in. The castle was a live restoration site shared with the main contractor and other trades, so scaffold, lifting and deliveries had to be planned around a fixed main-contract programme.

Our solution

We began with a survey and sample panels, then built scaffold to each elevation in phases so the masonry and roof crews could follow on. Vegetation was removed by hand, then the stone was cleaned with the DOFF steam system. Cement pointing and render were taken out carefully, and the stone was defrassed before repairs. Decayed stones were cut out and replaced with new stone, or with salvaged stone dressed on site, and built in with natural hydraulic lime mortars. Joints were repointed and the finished work tinted to blend with the surrounding sandstone. On the roofs we stripped and relaid slate over a vapour-permeable underlay, with new leadwork. The boundary and terrace walls were repaired from a condition report we prepared: loose stones were numbered and taken down, soil and vegetation cleared from the core, voids packed with lime mortar and stone pinnings, and new stone tied back with stainless steel ties. Corroding fixings were removed from the copes, which were then uplifted and rebedded, with new Caithness copes cut and fitted to the north boundary wall.