The outside of the old church building has just received birthday present from the gallery (which is now in its 10th year). At last its been reharled using traditional lime mortars by Tim Meek.

Old buildings need lime harl. It protects and gives them a complete appearance. Traditional lime harl is think with lots of coats of limewash. Sometimes on older buildings the limewash is taken over all of the stone. Slightly later building s the harl an limewash is protected by raised margins. In all cases old buildings are seamless.

In the past buildings would harl with a single coat of coarse sand and lime putty, but first they made the face of the wall flush by filling in joints and hollows with bits of waste stone, slate or tile. The best way to achieve the same results is to continue the same building tradition. Nowdays work is easier because we have machines. Sand and lime can be mixed in a builders mixer. Sometimes its easier to mix the lime putty in a bucket first with a drill and a painter's paddle. If the mix comes out of the mixer too wet then just leave it on a board until it dries up a little.

The mix should be made with modern concrete sand, which is very coarse, and lots of lime putty. Sometimes as much as two buckets of sand to one of lime. Hair can be added as well. Before work can begin you will need a good scaffold. This should be kept back from the wall face. The scaffold should be covered with tarpaulins which will protect the work from the sun and wind in summer and keep out the worst of winter weather.

The wall can now be cleaned and wetted for this use a hose pipe with a garden spray attachment. Keeping the wall damp is a very important part of the work.

Now the wall is ready for preparation. Take some hairy mortar and place it with a trowel into a space or hollow in the wall. Next take a stone, clay time or bit of slate and knock it into the mortar until it is firm. Spread the excess mortar out over the area just to finish the flushing up. At the end of the day, cover the work area with another tarpaulin.

Next day, spray both the new area yo are going to work in and the work you did the day before. Then take the edge of a small trowel over the previous days work pressing out any wee cracks and leaving the whole surface really rough. The work area should look like a loch with islands just peeping through. Now cover the wall with a tarpaulin for one week unless the weather is cool and wet. Every day, sometimes two or three times, you will have to damp the wall down with the hose and spray. Try not to take the tarpaulins of when you do this, but get in behind them. You might get a bit wet.

After a week take the sheets of in readiness for the harl. Mix up some sloppy mortar with grip or shells. Some people also put hair in. First wet the wall and let it soak in. It is a good idea to coat any smoother, bare stones with some thick limewash before the harl is thrown. Now start at the top and throw the harl using the wrist rather than the whole arm. Any areas which are a bit clumpy can be evened out with a bristle hand sweeping brush. The wall should be covered and damped down for a week.

Limewash fills any small cracks in the harl and helps to give it a long life.. Lime wash is made by mixing lime putty with water sometimes fat is added to limewash to make it water resistant, or colour can be added. The limewash will be thinner than most people imagine. It is applied liberally to a wet wall with a big paint brush. Allow it to soak in and then go back over it working the wash in. This is like polishing wood and 3 or 4 coats will be needed.

Here are some things to remember. Harling is easy. Keep the mortar thin at all times. keep the walls damp and covered when it is hot or very cold. Have fun and the walls will look lovely.

History of the Church

Kilmorack parish is one of the largest in Scotland stretching from Beauly in the East to Tomich in the west. The name of this parish Kilmorack (Kil Morok or Moroc) apparently comes from an early church’s dedication to St Moroc, a 9th century Bishop of Dunkeld. The location of the church alone, next to what in pre-hydro days was a series of spectacular cascading waterfalls, must have been spiritual. Clearly the old 18th church building which houses Kilmorack Gallery and the religious buildings before it were very central to the area. The old kirk (1786) is of some architectural merit. Externally, the south facing facade and two gable ends are entirely Georgian with its hallmark elegance and symmetry, along with original leaded paints, mason’s marks, and mostly complete hand-spun crown glass. In-between the pinkish offset margins and beveled freestone basecourse is off-white lime harling. Atop the steeply pitched Ballahulish state roof is a fine six legged classical belfry at the west end and a ball finial to the east.

Internally the church is very different and a very pleasant surprise to enter. Rather than being 18th century as expected, it is intact mock-gothic dating back to 1835. At this point two new arched stained glass windows were punched through the north wall; original Georgian windows on the gables were faced with fine rose-windows; and the interior was re-cast with new plastered gothic arches, fine panelled woodwork and wooden trefoiled shafts reminiscent of gothic stone columns. There are many beautiful features still intact including central chandelier hooks in the form of mermaids, the original pink leaded paint, rose insets formed in the original 18th century queen-post design roof. However, over all the most powerful feeling is appreciation of the incredible thought that must have gone into the creating the unity, symmetry and design of the interior and the incredible workmanship gone into creating it.

Such a fine building must have had a talented architect involved but no name has been found. There must have been ample funding too. Interestingly coming when the Lovat estates were forfeited (1745 – 1782) and government improvements were seen as a way of taming the catholic/Jacobean locals. Could the funding of new churches at Kilmorack (and Kirkhill) have been part of a drive to form more 19th century mindset?