Drogo 3

Castle Drogo is presently encased in a giant, white plastic sheet covered scaffold. The sort of thing which would never have been allowed had it not had the heritage label hung around it. A giant blot on the landscape, visible for miles around. Probably visible from the moon, although not visible in google earth, who must have been round before these works got under way.

There was a catch though. The heritocrats ruled that the scaffold could not be tied to the building underneath as this might damage the heritage stonework, thus adding considerably to someone else's expense. This despite the fact that a lot of said stonework was being dismantled for repairs. The National Trust were lucky in that when the plastic sheet blew off in the winter it did not take much, if any, of the scaffold with it - although, even so, the bill for putting it back again was of the order of £50,000.

I was intrigued by the ties holding the scaffold down, three of which can be seen in the snap above. One can only suppose that the wire straps terminate in large concrete blocks which have been buried in the pavement so as not to be unsightly.