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Press and Journal
15-05-2025
- General
- Press and Journal
Fairburn Tower: Artist's Highland castle transformation on TV tonight
He was one of the talented individuals whose labours helped bring a ruined Scottish castle in the Highlands back to life. And now, the story of how Paul Mowbray was involved in the restoration of the 16th century Fairburn Tower is the subject of a new TV documentary. The programme recounts how the large-scale project was overseen by the Landmark Trust, while a disparate group of artists, craftsmen and tradespeople sprinked their magic at the site, near Muir of Ord in Ross-shire. Paul was commissioned to recreate the structure's medieval ceiling and produced something beautiful at the heart of what had been a 500-year-old shell. He was often oblivious to anything happening in the wider world, such was his absorption in resurrecting a rare survivor from the Scottish Renaissance. But this beetle-browed lover of art, architecture, history, his homeland and a challenge rose to the task magnificently and his work will feature in the More4 documentary series Historic House Rescue at Paul told me: 'I was asked if I would be interested in creating a traditional Scottish board and beam painting in a late 16th century style. 'I went to visit the tower and was very impressed with the standard of the restoration considering the state it was in before. The draft for the painted ceiling was impressive and very well researched by two of the Landmark Trust's historians. 'This was the backbone of the task and was based on the look and manner of some content from Delgatie Castle, a ceiling I always admired in the Aberdeenshire style. 'I worked with the historian and produced a 3D visual of how it would look and, together, we established relevant historical content and where it should be placed within the area of the ceiling.' Such significant renovations weren't implemented easily. Forget about a minor tinkering of the amenities; this was basically starting from scratch on a giant canvas. But thankfully, Paul's passion for his subject and the knowledge gleaned from travelling across Scotland from Fife to Glasgow and Aberdeenshire to Inverness allowed him to transcend any difficulties he encountered. He said: 'Physically, the work was demanding and it entailed painting above your head daily for two months which was pretty hard going. 'I worked long hours and stayed in local guest houses to maximise progress. 'I also used a local sports therapy masseuse to keep me in shape, and had a yoga mat on site to minimise fatigue. 'From a technical perspective, the work had to be sympathetically carried out and the style of the painting was faithfully observed. 'It was beneficial that I have studied, researched and photographed many of Scotland's finest painted ceilings and built up knowledge and insight over several decades. 'This helped build a bond with a project such as Fairburn Tower and ensured that it went beyond being a commission and became a responsibility; it's not only something you do for the present, but also for generations to come in the future.' Paul is one of those people who don't look for problems but solutions; an individual who admits he thrived as part of the collaborative effort at Fairburn. And much of his drive and determination sprung from the encouragement he was given by his family in his formative years. He said: 'My parents were very encouraging in broadening my interests. Travel, along with historic buildings and museums and studying nature, were central to most days out as a child, and many of these interests and memories inspire my art to this day. 'My parents had limited means, but they bought a steady stream of arts and crafts materials, books and encyclopedias for me and I am so grateful for that.' Paul's participation was just one piece of a larger jigsaw puzzle when it came to an initiative on the scale of Fairburn Tower. He paid tribute to skilled labourer Tristan Maryon, who provided him with whatever support he required and, as Paul said: 'He is one of these folk you don't meet very often – positive, full of energy in his job. It must be something in the water up there.' Yet, in his words and his unfettered enthusiasm for his labours, there's the zeal and zest of the genuine aesthete, allied to a pride in what he and his colleagues achieved. So what were the abiding memories of immersing himself in the Tower? Once again, his words testified to the fact this project was about a lot more than his fee. He said: 'It's hard to express the sense of leaving your artwork in a noble historic property and painting in a style of a long forgotten age, but using snippets of content that tell a little about Fairburn's story today. 'Then, there were the barn owls that moved in during site work and the jackdaws that broke in and built impressive nests while the workers were on their weekend break. 'Ultimately, the story has been told using the design and emblem books of the 16th century, so the authenticity permeates throughout. 'We can appreciate all this now, but it will be interesting to know how future generations will observe the art work.' There's no such thing as a 'normal' schedule. One week, he will be completing Gothic carvings for a Georgian manor. The next, he will be involved in producing his own contemporary artwork which has been displayed in the Royal Scottish Academy. He savours the north of Scotland and isn't done with this part of the world. In fact, there could be another alluring assignment this year at Boleskine House; the Loch Ness home of occultist Aleister Crowley, and Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. But we'll leave that particular stairway to heaven for another day. If you enjoyed this story, you may also like: Big interview: Exclusive: Meet the man bringing the past to life at Fairburn Tower in the Highlands
The National
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Fragment of ‘lost' music reveals sacred Scots beauty
The piece of music has helped to overturn a common perception that pre-Reformation Scotland was a 'barren wasteland' when it came to high-quality sacred music. The new work contains a fragment of music from the 16th century that was unearthed by composer Neil Tòmas Smith. It was contained in the Aberdeen Breviary of 1510, a collection of prayers, hymns, psalms and readings used for daily worship in Scotland, including detailed writings on the lives of Scottish saints. Known as the 'Glamis copy' as it was formerly held in Glamis Castle in Angus, it is now in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. READ MORE: Thousands of people turn out to pro-independence march in Wales The Aberdeen Breviary came from an initiative by King James IV who issued a royal patent to print books containing orders of service in accordance with Scottish religious practices, rather than needing to rely on importing texts from England or Europe. Smith came across a reference to the fragment in a book on the Breviary when he was researching Scottish Renaissance music for his new piece Hidden Polyphony. 'Even a tourist like me in this field can sometimes luckily stumble upon something,' he said. 'The introduction to the book mentioned a line of music written in a beautiful hand on one of the Breviary manuscripts which had not been identified.' Smith mentioned the reference to Dr James Cook of Edinburgh University who was helping with his research. 'It turned out he was not aware of the fragment, nor was it mentioned in other studies that collated Scottish sources,' he said. A short while later, PhD student David Coney identified the fragment which turned out to be a rare example of music from Scottish religious institutions 500 years ago – the only piece which survives from north-east Scotland from this period. Even though it is only 55 notes, it provides clues to what music sounded like five centuries ago. 'For a long time, it was thought that pre-Reformation Scotland was a barren wasteland when it comes to sacred music,' said Dr Cook. 'Our work demonstrates that, despite the upheavals of the Reformation which destroyed much of the more obvious evidence of it, there was a strong tradition of high-quality music-making in Scotland's cathedrals, churches and chapels, just as anywhere else in Europe.' As well as uncovering lost sounds within its pages, researchers have also traced how the Aberdeen Breviary may have been used, and by whom, over its long history. At one time used as the private service book of the illegitimate son of a high-ranking chaplain at Aberdeen Cathedral, himself a rural priest, it would later become a treasured family heirloom of a Scottish Catholic whose travels led him from post-Reformation Scotland to the capitals of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. The piece by Smith, which will be premiered in May, is an exploration of the poetry and music of 16th-century Scotland, displaying the artistry and sophistication of the era. READ MORE: EHRC guidance on single-sex spaces branded 'harsh, authoritarian and cruel' by Greens Smith, who is an expert in 20th and 21st-century music, admits that before creating his new work, he was 'incredibly ignorant' of Renaissance music, Scottish or otherwise. 'I had heard of Robert Carver, whose work is preserved in the stunning Carver Choirbook, but I did not know the music and I had engaged very little with continental composers from earlier centuries,' he said. 'It is difficult to overstate how wrong I find this in retrospect. It only took one listen to Carver's O Bone Jesu to convince me that this was probably the greatest surviving work to be written in Scotland from any century. 'The titanic chords on Jesu that occur throughout the piece made such an impression that they feature heavily in the conclusion of my own.' Works by Handel and Wagner will also be part of the concerts at Edinburgh's Usher Hall on May 16 and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on May 17. The concerts will feature the rare combination of the RSNO and the Dunedin Consort, along with soprano Anna Dennis.
