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Forfar & District
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6 members attended - Graeme H, Lesley, Eric, Colin, Ray, Clare.
Met at a very busy Glen Doll car park at 08:45, and travelled in 2 cars (with masks) to the turning circle.
The aim of the work party was to make the bourach more snowtight for the winter ahead. There were 3 main jobs. The first was to attach the 2 sheets
of corrugated iron to the back wall. Graeme had carried these up the previous weekend. Graeme, Eric and Clare set about slipping them behind the
roof tensioning wires and bolting them to the roof. Colin and Lesley cleared the turf from the outside edge of the roof to expose the first row of bolts
attaching the sheets to the beams below. The bolts were removed and replaced with longer ones. Then holes were drilled round the edges and
wire netting was attached to the roof edge. Turfs were replaced and the netting folded back and pinned using wire pins, made by Clare. Ray's job was to shape plywood
to fix to to right-hand side of the door, working around the odd profile of the stonework. This was cut by Graeme's angle grinder and fixed in place.
The last job was to cut more turfs to fill gaps in the roof, and anchor the new sheets to the ground on the back wall. Work finished about 16:00.
Several dirty workers went home for a good clean! Good job and well organised by Graeme.
Clare wandered up to the bourach. She said it was a lovely walk, and she hardly saw a soul. As she was having a cuppy outside, a couple went past and
asked if she'd been staying there. She told them that she was doing a structural inspection on behalf of the club.
They seemed impressed! She took some photos showing that some work is required over the summer to finish off the job. Here are details of her photos.
* Daylight showing through a few bits of the back wall, half a dozen at most and quite small.
* Graffiti from yesterday. She forgot to check the vistors' book to see if people were in over lockdown.
* Left hand side of the door is fine.
* All the wires look in place and holding tight
* Looks great over all (view of the door from the path)!
* Bone dry amd in good condition (interior view)
* A bit of turf missing from the back left hand corner
* Gaps needing filled (right hand side of door
* Turf from corner (lying on ground)
* Roof looking good. both poles still there
Bob had received news from the Glen Doll Ranger that it had been reported to him that the Bourach is full of snow. Graeme went up to the Bourach to check it out. Here
is his report.
"It is indeed largely filled with snow - probably a couple of tonnes - more inside than is on the roof. It is getting in through some gaps under the roof but
mostly through little holes in the walls. A couple of turfs have rolled off - and a couple that were at the path edge have opened up probably the biggest hole.
The fallen turfs were frozen to the ground or I might have tried to put them back. The stack of small stones that filled the worst door gap had partially fallen
- contributing to the thru-flow of wind that carries the snow in. I had taken up some plywood and the tools required to shape and fix it.
That gap has now fairly well been plugged. I didn't try / have time to dig out the snow - due to the cool shade inside, it will stay there long after the
outside snow has melted. The platform is pretty much covered, piled to the roof at the rear - the floor under the platform has quite a pile too.
If anybody wishes to go up and clear some of it, that would be good - maybe not necessary as it will melt over the next month or so - hopefully.
During the summer, I would propose we arrange a workparty to cover up the North wall a bit better - maybe a couple of roofing sheets, backfilled with
the soil/heather adjacent to the north wall. The roof sheeting had previously extended over that wall a bit further. The roofing turf can be put back
- the dry summer maybe contributed by shrinking & lightening the turf allowing it to move.All in all, after a quick inspection, the walls seemed to be sound,
the roof & wire ties were secure, the turf on the wallhead was generally intact. Considering the winds it must have seen, a bit of snow is not too bad."
