The nine foot high barmkin wall is revealed!
Contact:
The Member of Parliament for this area is Danny Alexander,
The directly elected Member of the Scottish Parliament for this area is Fergus Ewing,
The Highland Councillor for this area is Sandy Park,
The Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments at Historic Scotland is Malcolm Cooper,
Above you see volunteers clearing the blackthorn round Rait Castle in April 2005.
This seemed to be a great step forward. We were supported by the Dowager Countess Cawdor who supplied two professional foresters and coffee & shortbread. But then we had to stop as there was confusion as to who actually owns the castle...
Over the past five years there has been no further progress. No scheduled Monument Consent has been applied for and the convenient confusion about ownership (last I heard it was 'one of the trusts') means that it is - apparently - no one's problem. Historic Scotland, responsible to the Scottish Government for the preservation of ancient monuments, has failed to establish who is responsible for the stewardship of this unique building and are firmly sitting on their hands..
After fifteen years of patiently lobbying and writing letters to the (very supportive) Nairnshire Telegraph, nothing worthwhile has been achieved. I believe it is now time for the local community, indeed the wider community that cares about these things, to take some action.
I will shortly be launching an e-petition to the Scottish Parliament. Until we have that underway, you may like to contact those in the left hand column and/or also register your feelings by joining our Save Rait Castle Facebook Group.
