Restoration's Marianne to visit hall this weekend
(Story dated: Saturday, July 16, 2004)

Restoration's Marianne Suhr, with architect Ptolemy Dean at the Hall of Clestrain

Marianne Suhr, Restoration's building surveyor, will be the special guest at a Hall of Clestrain open day this Sunday, July 18.

She hopes to organise a course in looking after historic buildings in Orkney and wants to gauge interest while she is here. She runs training for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB).

She first discussed the idea of a course in Orkney with Leslie Burgher, architect and local SPAB member, when she was here filming in February.

"Some ideas have been discussed for an event in the autumn or next spring, Mr Burgher said.

"What we are keen to know is the level of interest in such a course.

"Anyone who is interested should come to Sunday's event and make themselves known to either myself or Marianne or contact me at Pentarq."

Marianne has been working with historic buildings since graduating as a surveyor in 1993.

Her first job was as clerk of works for the National Trust.

She spent a year on a scholarship with the SPAB before joining a commercial firm, surveying historic buildings and designing repair schemes.

She has worked on many churches and several English Heritage sites and has written conservation plans for sites such as Avebury stone circle and Cardiff Castle.

In her work for the SPAB, she runs workshops around the country. She is also involved in campaigning to attract more young people into the building trades and to improve standards in the industry.

The Hall of Clestrain site will be open to the public from 2pm to 6pm on Sunday.

The Friends of the Orkney Boat Museum have organised talks and guided tours around the house and site, although the floors in the house are too dangerous for people to go inside.

Visitors will be able to see where the proposed boat museum will be and go down to the boat noust featured in Tuesday's Restoration programme.

Friends' secretary, Jack Drever, said there would also be live music, competitions and activities for children. Entry will be free.