We’re having the driest period at Dunans I can remember since we came to Glendaruel in 2003. We’ve not had an ‘Argyll Soaker’ for at least ten weeks, and even before then the winter didn’t bring the rain it should’ve done. It feels like the east coast and not the west it is that dry. Well, of course this has advantages: the first and most obvious is that the usual plague of midges hasn’t materialised — we can leave windows open at night and we do not get inundated with insects. (more…)

If you have been following our project for a while now, you’ll know that in my professional I design branding, books and websites for a living. For a long time now we have wanted to create a more coherent brand for Dunans which encapsulated the project and our aspirations for it. We’ve now got beyond the drafting stage and have some finalised artworks for our lairds and ladies to look at.

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After our long winter a sudden spring has sprung and is already accelerating into summer. It is quite beautiful and we’re not really accustomed to it yet, and that is particularly because we have been working in a highly concentrated fashion on several things which hasn’t left us much time to really notice the changes wrought by season, climate and fauna (more of which in another post). The other benefit of a cold winter and a late spring is the absence of midges — this one element is benison indeed!

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Just a quick announcement to say that we’re changing things slightly at LairdofDunanscastle.com. To give you quicker access to the site, and to ensure we don’t have to keep resetting everything when we need to get someone logged in, we’ve gone for a ‘moderated’ registration option, which means if you would like to access the site and you are a Laird or Lady of Dunans Castle, please click here, fill out the form and we will get you on line in very quick order.

Over the coming days we will also add an automated email service for those of you who wish to have a laird or lady email address.

For all those who have managed the trek to Dunans, walked around the grounds and enjoyed the spectacular scener, you’ll be saddened to hear one of our enduring attractions has passed away. (more…)

We’ve been working hard at Dunans on a new element to the Lairds’ and Ladies’ project which will widen our market and ensure that the project here goes from strength to strength. As part of it I have been busily taking photos of the castle and its environs over the last weeks. This set was focussed on the castle itself and was taken between showers on a particularly windswept day. (more…)

From the 22nd December pretty much until the end of January we had one of the Coldest periods I can remember at Dunans since we came here in March 2003. Snow remained on the ground for over three weeks, and we couldn’t get a car out of the drive after January 1st. The only reason we did then was that my father had brought over his Land Rover Defender for Hogmanay and just about managed to conquer the ice-rink that was our drive (but there were some hairy moments).

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We’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our lairds and ladies a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

2009 has been a really great year at Dunans, and 2010 will be even better. We hope to see lots of you next year, as during this we’ve had visits from lairds and ladies from all over the world — from Vancouver and LA, Murmansk and Tiblisi, Canberra and Auckland you’ve come over to Scotland and made visits to Dunans to see your square feet, the tallest tree in the UK (OK OK we know you Americans have the tallest tree in the world — or is it in Tasmania?) and view the ruinous castle and our progress.

Next year will see much of the castle cleared, a feasibility study carried out and work done on the drive and parking — its going to be hard work, but we’re really feeling that we have cleared the decks now and can now move this project forward at top speed.

So many festives to you all, and hope to see you in the New Year!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that half-lit scenes at dusk are not photographed well by 5 megapixel phone cameras – why I tried to is beyond me. Call it unpreparedness, call it lack of foresight if you will, but the photo included hereafter, is about the best, and frankly, it does neither Ariel nor the grounds justice on what were two extraordinary nights of Shakespearean delight at Dunans Castle.

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The Royal in question is Prince Charles, and he’s the inspiration for the newest of our garden projects. You’ll know if you have visited Dunans, that along the drive we have a truly magnificent bank of colourful rhododendrons. These Victorian exotics which provide such a riot of flame hues in May and June, are for the most part redundant during the rest of the year. Not only that, they’re getting leggy and somewhat shapeless in comparison to other examples in the grounds. So what to do? Well, good old Charlie Windsor gave us a great idea.

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