[Closed] Abergeldie Castle - could it be saved from the Dee?

Don't think I'd throw money in a bucket for any charity whose primary goal is to help businesses.

But then I suspect such charities don't rely on bucket rattling.

Has anybody managed to work out where the funding of that charity does come from? Their largest income item is "grants and trusts" which suggests mostly public money, though it's not explicit. Otherwise there is subscription income, though that is less than the amount spent on "member services" suggesting members are a net drain, and there is sponsorship and event income (there are other income items, but those are the only ones larger than this expenditure).

For year ending April 2014 total turnover was less than £1m, so this expenditure is more than 10% of that, and grants paid were £160k, so if this comes under that category it is more than half the amount previously paid out in grants in a year.

All from latest annual report

I'm sure there is more detail in there, but I've only skimmed the accounts.

edit: there does seem to be a breakdown of the grants - mostly either lottery or public funds, all with specific purposes which are presumably ringfenced, none of which would appear to cover this expenditure, and none of which are individually large enough.

aracer - I don't have the time or inclination to go into that detail to confirm what is patently obvious anyway! Its quite interesting though. The words dodge and tax would appear to fit quite neatly in the same sentence here.

It was kind of a rhetorical question - I wasn't really expecting anybody to go through that in more detail than I had. It does appear that unless their funding model has changed that most of their money is in fact public money - though it is of course possible that this expenditure has been funded from their private sponsorship income.

LOL at the charity Patron

businesses, of all sizes and in all sectors, to operate more sustainably and responsibly to improve the economic, social and environmental outcomes for Scotland".

I'm struggling here, unless the house is essential to the business.

My guess is the charity trustees won't challenge it!

I'm struggling here, unless the house is essential to the business.

Its a hunting estate, what do you think? Its all part of the pomp and drama that convinces folk to part with ridiculous sums of money just for the opportunity to shoot something never mind the extra should they actually kill it.

Hunting rights are leased out to Balmoral. I don't think the neighbours will be that fussed about the "grandeur" of Abergeldie.

Public money/ public access.

Bizarre as it may seem, I have building and contents insurance for this sought of thing or perhaps I've been paying all these years when I don't really need it, obviously the county council will pay.

Squirrelking, you are really struggling to keep your head above water 🙂

Obviously 100k spent in the local area will trickle down to some extent whatever it is spent on. But if it is spent on repairing the houses of 100 locals who have been flood damaged (or a bridge used by the community etc) then the community also benefits by having 100 more housese fixed up or a bridge they can use in their daily lives, on top of any trickle-down. If on the other hand it's spent on saving some gentry's castle then said gentry benefits by having a castle. I think the difference is pretty clear.

Cockermouth Castle too.
they've piled flood gravel deposits up in a protective bar along the base.
[img] [/img]

Still hoping it falls over before they Spunk too much cash on one old git.

I'm struggling here, unless the house is essential to the business.

I'll post this 1948 Canmore photo again because it makes the size of the place more apparent than close up photos that only show the old tower part:

[img] [/img]

Obviously we don't know much about the daily workings of the estate there but I'm guessing those buildings hold more than the Baron, his wife and their favourite armchairs.

Those other buildings don't exist anymore. Any colour photos of the castle have trees where the other buildings were.

https://goo.gl/maps/72cYYjgLK152

Those other buildings don't exist anymore. Any colour photos of the castle have trees where the other buildings were.

Bloody STW pedants

As an aside, according to that document the ceo of virgin money is the duke of rothsay's ambassador for Scotland.

WTF?

Scone ?

[quote=squirrelking ]Its a hunting estate, what do you think? Its all part of the pomp and drama that convinces folk to part with ridiculous sums of money just for the opportunity to shoot something never mind the extra should they actually kill it.

I don't know - is that a fact, or just wild speculation? I'm sure there are hunting estates without castles doing just fine (that's my wild speculation BTW - feel free to try and refute the idea if you want).

Any word/s from Ms Sturgeon on this?

Those other buildings don't exist anymore. Any colour photos of the castle have trees where the other buildings were.

Fair enough - it was hard to tell in the colour photos I looked at whether the buildings were gone or just had mossy roofs and trees in front of them.

[url= https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1095642 ]The colour Canmore photos from 2007[/url] certainly show the roofs of the steadings to the left, but you are right the main building seems to have been reduced back to the tower house and a small adjacent single storey building.

In the drone footage posted earlier you can see that some of the buildings to the left of your pic are still there, but they don't appear to have been under threat of collapse due to the erosion.

I know it's hard to tell from the black and white photo, but it doesn't [i]look[/i] like there is 60 feet of garden between the tower and the river there.

Any word/s from Ms Sturgeon on this?

Should there be? It's a charity giving out its own money.

eckinspain - Member

I know it's hard to tell from the black and white photo, but it doesn't look like there is 60 feet of garden between the tower and the river there.

A 60 foot section of riverbank collapsed, rather than it being 60 foot from the river. But still a big ol chunk

A 60 foot section of riverbank collapsed, rather than it being 60 foot from the river. But still a big ol chunk

v8ninety - Member

I wonder what his thinking was in NOT doing some serious bank reinforcing work to save his home was then?

Presumably that the river bank hadn't collapsed for at least 68 years?

I wonder what his thinking was in NOT doing some serious bank reinforcing work to save his home was then?

Presumably that the river bank hadn't collapsed for at least 68 years?

a GCSE level understanding of river hydrology says this scenario has been inevitable for at least 68 years

edit: I wonder where the river was when the it was first built?

sharkbait - Member

(although it's already a mere shadow of what it was in the '48 photo )

The other buildings were later additions so you could probably look at it as part of the restoration tbh. (I'm no expert but they look a [i]lot[/i] more recent, 19th century? Certainly not in keeping with the original tower.)

all that new stone will be down at the harbour now I reckon.....

water table is beyond saturated now ... I'm at 150ft elevation on a hill in lower deeside and we are starting to see water build up to worrying levels now.....

I wonder what he'll do with the rest of the money? (£90k ish?)

Well I'd imagine he'd either use it for its intended purpose or give it back.

Or are we now just randomly accusing the guy of embezzling money from a charity on the basis that he is a bit posh?

Trail rat +1 - absolutely futile putting all that down.

@GrahamS wondering where the figure of 100k came from if the plan is to put some stones in the river. Also wondering what phase 2 of the 'plan' is

Got to say I was expecting some large boulders to be put down initially, or better still groups of large boulders contained within steel cages.

Not sure how its doing today. Regardless of who owns the castle you can't build a new 450 year old tower house and it would be a shame to loose the heritage.

Pictures of the repairs as I see there are still assumptions being made.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeenshire/798815/pictures-work-ongoing-save-abergeldie-castle-river-dee-continues-rise/

Also I have heard that if all goes to plan, and there is no further damage today, the Invercauld bridge should be open circa the 18th

is the castle still there after last night ?

i had my own moat this morning. drove down to see what the bridge looked like for the mrs going to work and at 6am there was no way i was even contemplating it in the landy water was fast flowing and about 3 foot deep on top of the bridge..... my neighbour was thinking about it in her merc... she thought better of it when a 5series tried to go through and cut out after about 10 ft out of the water - last i saw it was going on a cars recovery low loader.

at 8am it was passable with care in an elevated car - about a foot deep and still fast flowing.

this is a burn thats normally 6 ft wide and 2 ft deep tops ........it was about 100ft wide and about 15 foot deep minimum.

[quote=cinnamon_girl ]Any word/s from Ms Sturgeon on this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-35269135

£1,500 grants to all affected

(Apologies for those waiting for the photo/video of it crumpling into the river)

£1,500 grants to all affected

Unless your bezzie's have influence, then it is £100k.

And £3k for affected business. That means he's got £104,500 to play with now. That should see him through.

I wonder what his thinking was in NOT doing some serious bank reinforcing work to save his home was then?

[img] [/img]
(noted that the second image includes a copyright statement but it appears that the owners' purpose in putting in on the web is to advertise the availability of framed prints and that [u]linking[/u] to it here supports that and so is not objected to)

[img] [/img]
1984

sexcrime
s-s-s-s-sexcrime

Sorry, Pavlovian response. Same as whenever someone say Mcmanaman I always have to do the Mnah Mnah Do-do, do-do-do response bit.

it would be interesting to see what it looked like, say, last summer.

I paddled past a few months ago with LD of this forum. I didn't take a pic - I was busy taking a pic of the canoe in the tree opposite...

Some video from Saturday showing the current work

That is a ****load of stone/rubble

That is a [b]metric[/b] **** [b]load[/b] of stone/rubble

Ftfy

It still remains on the outside of the river bank, against the flow.

Any idea what the long term fix is anyone? That looks as if a spate or 2 and it'll be as you were.

I would have thought they'd at least used gabion baskets to give it some structure.

A fair few bits of the Dee are gabioned, steel sheet re-enforced or mahoosive boulders.

It still remains on the outside of the river bank, against the flow.

Fantastic footage. I wonder why drones are so immune to breezes and updrafts? What's going on on the inside of the bend? It looks as if somebody is about to start excavating the material that's been dumped as part of the normal erosion/deposition effect of a river, which would make more room for the water.

I'm glad somebody managed to find the funds for it, even though I think the castle will go down the river one day, whatever we do.

They're taking rubble out of the river to give it more depth and reduce the impact on the new embankment

Okay that's clear in the first few seconds.

interesting....now they need a load of liquid concrete pumped on top of the rocks.

A93 repairs

The fact is getting done so quickly has nothing to do with the fact that queenie has a holiday home next door I'm sure

[img] ?oh=94818a21a67d6def214ea4db4fa7ee75&oe=57008CAB[/img]

[img] ?oh=bd88889ed890a08360547052bb226a0d&oe=57464C0A[/img]

I am sure she has a helipad there, she'll manage somehow.

The fact is getting done so quickly has nothing to do with the fact that queenie has a holiday home next door I'm sure

I though the south side had stayed open anyway, so the A93 closure wouldn't really have affected the Queen.

Invercauld Bridge re-opens today too.

I think the fact that it's the A93 might have something to do with it!

I wonder if the old fella owns the land over the river too, he'll probably get a suitable recompense for allowing them to build the new section of road too!

Pretty sure that the other side of the river is Invercauld Estate. They're nice folks. When the F&M thing was in full flow they were one of the first to assure walkers and cyclists that the hills were still "open".