Castlemilk Stables

Castlemilk Stables were built around 1790 on the grounds of the former Castlemilk Country House. The heritage value of this building is not only in its listed status. It is also in its cultural and historical links with Castlemilk’s past as part of a country estate and designed landscape.

The building is a substantial stone-built structure, laid out in a quadrangle form with a central tower and dome on the main elevation. It suffered neglect and fire damage in the latter half of the 20th century but was fully refurbished between 2003 and 2007. The refurbishment was managed by the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust.

This work included replacement stonework, roofing, general building fabric repairs, and the creation of a new public realm with office and community space. The building has had contemporary additions using modern materials while respecting the historic fabric of the original stable block.

Before the refurbishment, much of the original stonework in the historic part of the building was damaged due to weathering and inappropriate cement repairs. Analysis of the stone found the existing stone to be grit stone. It was probably locally sourced during construction in the 18th century.

This type of sandstone is not available in Scotland. Bearl stone, sourced from a Northumbrian quarry, was then chosen for a technical and visual match after the British Geological Survey conducted an analysis.

Existing lime mortar samples from pointing in the stonework were also matched by the Scottish Lime Centre. This was to prevent future damage from inappropriate mortar in the historic stonework.

Generally, all elevations were cleaned with a stiff bristle brush to remove lichen, finished off with a light fungicidal wash. The specialist contractor endeavoured to minimise stonework repairs, although some stone indents and several full stone repairs were required.

Tooling was applied to the face of the new stone to match adjacent stones. Cement pointing was carefully removed by hand tooling, to avoid damage to arrises (sharp edges to building stone).

Alongside traditional materials and good conservation practice, a limited and complementary palette of new materials and technologies were used within the inner courtyard. These were structural steel, glass and timber.

Castlemilk Stables required indent stone repairs showing best practice principles by retaining as much of the historic stonework as possible. This caused minimal intervention involving the least physical disturbance to the existing building.

Stones were only replaced where they had decayed to such a degree that they affected the structural function of the surrounding stonework. Proper matching properties of the replacement indent to the original stone produced a successful and long-lasting result.

The project could have simply considered the surface colour without thinking about how the stone would perform. Instead, this process minimised the chances of using unsuitable stone which could cause further damage and decay in the future.

Close attention was paid to the tooling (the chisel marks and grooves) on the stone indent repairs to match the existing stone. These aspects of stone repair allowed the new stone to work in harmony with the existing historic fabric.

The attention to detail on the existing fabric is beautifully complemented by the more modern materials and techniques introduced in the courtyard.