end this air pollution!

[rich]

I recently had occasion to browse through the Castles section looking to download some backdrops for my computer screen.
I was shocked and saddened by the prodigous quantities of fossil fuels consumed by these castles.
A prime offender is Brough Castle. It has no fewer than six gigantic chimneys spewing who- knows- what effluents into the atmosphere. There appears to be a north wind off the Pentland Firth blowing so the wretched peasantry to the south will be hacking and wheezing.
On the surface Berriedale is a lot better with only two but the atmsophere is clearly polluted - a more menacing sky I have rarely seen.
Halberry has five chimneys belching nastiness into the Caithness air - regardless of the fact that is a fine summer's day.
And what can I say about Knockinnon - 10 - yes count them TEN chimneys - there must be a virtual industrial revolution going on there.
Perhaps these chimneys are secret weapons - you kill off any beseigers by giving them bronchitis and pneumonia.
Now, clearly this is a very serious matter.
I suppose we cannot reasonably expect the artist to extinguish some of these chimneys. But is it too much to hope for the creation of a building code for any future castles scheduled for the web site.
As things stand it makes one long for the cleanliness of nuclear power...

[Naefearjustbeer]

What are you on?? I will have a double LOL!!


I recently had occasion to browse through the Castles section looking to download some backdrops for my computer screen.
I was shocked and saddened by the prodigous quantities of fossil fuels consumed by these castles.
A prime offender is Brough Castle. It has no fewer than six gigantic chimneys spewing who- knows- what effluents into the atmosphere. There appears to be a north wind off the Pentland Firth blowing so the wretched peasantry to the south will be hacking and wheezing.
On the surface Berriedale is a lot better with only two but the atmsophere is clearly polluted - a more menacing sky I have rarely seen.
Halberry has five chimneys belching nastiness into the Caithness air - regardless of the fact that is a fine summer's day.
And what can I say about Knockinnon - 10 - yes count them TEN chimneys - there must be a virtual industrial revolution going on there.
Perhaps these chimneys are secret weapons - you kill off any beseigers by giving them bronchitis and pneumonia.
Now, clearly this is a very serious matter.
I suppose we cannot reasonably expect the artist to extinguish some of these chimneys. But is it too much to hope for the creation of a building code for any future castles scheduled for the web site.
As things stand it makes one long for the cleanliness of nuclear power...

[canuck]

Neafearjustbeer, as you can see, the Toronto Chapter Org get togethers are never boring. rich is our president.

[Lolabelle]

I tried to count them at Knockinnon, but I couldn't even find a photo that was close enough to distinguish a chimney. Where did you find one? :~(

[trinkie]

Well spotted.
Changed days indeed.
At one time a chimney was a status symbol.
There was even a kind of a blessing ''Lang may yur Lum Reek''

[rich]

I tried to count them at Knockinnon, but I couldn't even find a photo that was close enough to distinguish a chimney. Where did you find one? :~(

Lolabelle here is the reference:
http://www.caithness.org/caithness/castles/knockinnon/

It's a rather tiny picture but I counted lums to the power of 10

[golach]

But is it too much to hope for the creation of a building code for any future castles scheduled for the web site.
As things stand it makes one long for the cleanliness of nuclear power...

Ehm Rich, just exactly when and where are anymore castles going to be built? We are still waiting to get planning permission for Asda in Thurso :(

[rich]

Ehm Rich, just exactly when and where are anymore castles going to be built? We are still waiting to get planning permission for Asda in Thurso :(

How many chimneys will Asda have? -- That's the question!

[Alice in Blunderland]

How many chimneys will Asda have? -- That's the question!
My first thought when I read this was at least maybe if they have chimneys they will last longer than Tescos windmills.:lol:

[Errogie]

Chimneys are a great aid to ventilation and health and it is well known that a good draught around your ankles and past your lugs dispels or finishes off asthmatics and the allergies which are currently enfeebling the present population of the county. I mean Caithness is renowned for its wind strength and it simply isn't possible to hermetically seal a house and who would want to anyway.

How many hours did you spend staring and wondering at the cavernous schoolroom ceiling in the Miller Academy with its large ventilation hole designed to wheech stale breath and aromas of wet wool and bodies straight out into the upper atmosphrere for recycling. The country school design model rolled out across the Highlands at the end of the 19th. and early 20th. century was based on a fear of endemic tuberculosis and the need to counter it with plenty of fresh air.

A good open fire and chimney will keep changing the air in any room. A castle or house without a lum on its roof just looks unfinished. No, the chimney is not dead but the flat roof ought to be consigned to the architectural dustbin.

[fred]

Chimneys are a great aid to ventilation and health and it is well known that a good draught around your ankles and past your lugs dispels or finishes off asthmatics and the allergies which are currently enfeebling the present population of the county. I mean Caithness is renowned for its wind strength and it simply isn't possible to hermetically seal a house and who would want to anyway.


Plus chimneys helped the economy by providing employment for small children.

[Blazing Sporrans]

Plus chimneys helped the economy by providing employment for small children.

And we used to send them up barefoot so that we could stab the soles of their feet with needles if they refused to go as far up as they could....
I wonder how many never came out again :lol:

[Errogie]

The other way they used to sweep chimneys was by drawing a live turkey or goose through them but I'm not sure which method was banned first, whether it was cruelty to animals or cruelty to children.

[rich]

Cleaning your chimney with a turkey:

Would you hold the turkey by the neck or by the feet? And would you have to shove it up the chimney or ascend the lum yourself dragging the turkey after you?

Or would you stand the bird in the fireplace, and flap your arms?

And what if the poor creature got stuck half way up?

I suppose you could light the fire and barbecue it.

Or get one of those Mexican peons who are currently indentured at the Errogie Ranch and haul him up the lum, wearing his sombero.

Or better still apply for a wind turbine and install it by the fireplace. Except you migh blow the house down.

[North Rhins]

Use a turkey? Remember a turkey is for life, not just Christmas.
However, if you were to use a chicken which is allowable, if in possession of the right permit, then it is inserted at the top of the lum and gravity allowed to take its course.
:lol:

[rich]

Mine is a four story house so I don't fancy climbing onto the roof with a chicken under one arm.
Are you trying to get me killed!

[North Rhins]

There must be a way round this without risk to life and limb. What about a small boy, clutching chicken, is put, somehow, onto roof. Small boy lowers chicken into chimney and, as first suggested, gravity takes over in regard to chicken and, probably, small boy. There you are, sorted.

[rich]

They could perhaps be lowered from a helicopter. We would have to find trhe appropriate grants body to fund all this.

[North Rhins]

The downdraft from the helicopter would negate the use of small boy\chicken. Brilliant idea. Logic, you just can’t beat it.
Must dash, matron says it’s time for my night time medication.
[lol]

[Blazing Sporrans]

The downdraft from the helicopter would negate the use of small boy\chicken. Brilliant idea. Logic, you just can’t beat it.[lol]
Why negate the employment of the small boy and his pet chicken? Are you some kind of helicopter-owning capitalist? How about said small boy AND chicken dropped from the helicopter with unerring accuracy into the chimney? If you have a four storey house, then you could just drop child and poultry from a greater height to ensure the whole chimney was swept properly...

[rich]

mmmmm......

[Errogie]

Yes undoubtedly birds have a fatal fascination for chimneys. On occasion they can form a very convenient town centre high rise nesting site until some inconsiderate turns on the underfloor heating and it then becomes a struggle to see who is first to succumb from smoke inhalation and as we know youngsters have to be kept away from other people's smoke.

What I could never understand was why those funny cowls which are attached to the pot are called a "Grannie" not an uncle or grandad. Makes one think of Granny from the Giles cartoons, small round and squat brandishing a furled umbrella.

Some rotate to face into the wind, others spin all the time. Perhaps someone more technically competent than I can post a photo of one in an intersting location and we can all have a stab at guessing which roof it adorns. Something like Caithness. orgs spot the Grannie competition if only to releive the monotony of the telephone box quiz.

Finally I have it on good authority that some birds deliberately roost on chimney pots in order to fumigate their feathers for their personal hygeine and social advancement.

[abalone]

we have to use smokeless fuel in this area.Don't the castles have to use smokeless?or is it thought that because you're out in the countryside it doesn't matter?

[marylund2323]

please stop smoking crack or w/e ur on....only jkin lol....but leave the castles out of it