I’m excited again be invited this Autumn to conduct a tour of Crossbasket Castle for the teaching staff and students of South Lanarkshire College!

I did this freely in 2018 which gave me the unique opportunity to mix my “daytime construction knowledge” with detailed local history.

The students will be there again to learn primarily about sustainable tourism by seeing up close a case study of a listed building once at risk, but now renovated. Crossbasket offers the perfect opportunity to discuss some of the listed features of the building and how it was made more environmentally friendly with the use of sustainable technology but whilst also protecting the character and charm of the place, e.g stain glass windows, remoulded cornices, architectural features etc. The various extensions and additions to the building in the last decade also fits well with what can be done with old buildings to advance tourism. The tour last year was memorable for me, somewhat surreal at times going from discussion of rendering of centuries old stone, to throwing in a ghost story or two! I hope to do that again to keep the students attention.

Looking forward to this and thank Crossbasket and South Lanarkshire College for the invite. The students from last year are pictured.