Castle of Old Wick could reopen after inspection and repair work completed
Historic Environment Scotland is working towards reopening the Castle of Old Wick to visitors after long-awaited inspections of its stonework were carried out this week.
Visitors have been unable to access the promontory where the cliff-top ruin south of the town sits for more than three-and-a-half years.
Inspections had been scheduled to take place in 2023 as part of a nationwide programme to check more than 200 sites cared for by the charity, but these were delayed.
Inspections of the stonework at the Wick site were carried out on Wednesday, with minor repairs also being made after scaffolding was put up around the monument.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) said that specialist teams carried out tactile inspections, carefully checking stonework by hand, accessing the ruin using ropes and scaffolding.
HES’s high-level masonry programme began in April 2022 to assess sites with stonework over 1.5 metres high to understand the combined impacts of age, construction, location and climate change.
It said that inspections at Castle of Old Wick were delayed after pre-inspection checks identified access safety concerns. A short-term scaffolding solution has since been installed to enable safe access for inspectors, it added.
Christa Gerdwilker, team leader for the high-level masonry programme at HES, said: “By examining the stonework by hand, we can see exactly how the exposed fabric is performing.
“On this narrow headland above the North Sea, conditions change quickly, and access is challenging, so a close-up inspection is essential.
“The ‘Old Man of Wick’ is a much-loved, much-photographed landmark for locals and visitors alike, and this work helps us target conservation where it’s needed most, and plan safe public access so people can continue to enjoy it.”
HES said that now inspections and repairs were complete, it was working towards safely reopening the site to visitors. It did not give any timescale as to when the site may be reopened.
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Explaining the process, a spokesperson said that specialist conservators carry out the inspections at close range. Working stone by stone, they check the fabric by hand and lightly “sound” the surface with a small tool to detect hollow tones that can indicate decay not visible to the eye. Any loose, cracked or delaminating masonry is recorded so targeted repairs can be planned.
Known locally as the ‘Old Man of Wick’, the surviving four-storey tower stands on a narrow rocky headland that juts out into the North Sea, with a deep rock-cut ditch and earthworks behind.
For many years it was thought the castle had been built by Harald Maddadson around the 1160s, making it one of the oldest in the country.
However, HES says “the surviving structure seems to date to the 14th century or later” and that its exposed coastal setting has contributed to ongoing deterioration of the masonry.