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Winner
Craigengillan, Ayrshire and Hafod, near Aberystwyth (Joint Winners)
Client
Mark Gibson (Craigengillan) and The Hafod Trust
Architect
Mark Gibson (Craigengillan) and John Phibbs / Dubois Landscape Survey Group (Hafod)
Craigengillan
This 1780s designed landscape, a rare example in Scotland of an unfragmented estate landscape, has been restored by Mark Gibson since 1999. It is astonishingly picturesque for southern Ayrshire, with deep ravines, waterfalls and lochs. Its special qualities were becoming lost amid alien and monotonous sitka spruce plantations; the lochs had silted up, bridges had collapsed and the house at its centre was badly decayed. Mark Gibson has coaxed new life into it with great energy but also great sensitivity. The eighteenth century planting plan has been reinstated, revealing the contours of the hills. Native species have replaced the sitka and native wildlife has followed. All the bridges have been rebuilt, the lochs dredged, 16 miles of new hedgerows planted. Three miles of drystone dykes have been meticulously repaired using a system patented by the Macadams, later of Tarmac fame, who lived here for 400 years.
Added to this is a very impressive social dimension. Craigengillan is on the edge of the depressed mining town of Dalmellington. Mark Gibson has transformed the relationship between the estate and the local population, providing employment for local youths with few other opportunities and making his estate accessible. Mutual antagonism, and the vandalism that follows in its wake, has been replaced by constructive engagement. The estate and to a large extent the town have a new sense of optimism and it is clear, on visiting Dalmellington, that Mark Gibson is held in genuine affection and high regard.
Hafod
This project involves the restoration of Thomas Johnes's landscape at Hafod, one of the very finest picturesque landscapes in Britain. Ten miles of paths have been restored, along with bridges (including the dramatic chain bridge) and landscape buildings.
The celebrated Hafod Walks, including the Lady's and Gentleman's Walks, had become obscured and overgrown. Woodland has been thinned to reveal them once more and make them negotiable by walkers. The Hafod Trust has been engaged on the current restoration programme since 1994; all their work has been underpinned by impressive scholarly research.
Special Award
RESTORATION OF A GEORGIAN GARDEN BUILDING
The Cilwendeg Shell House, Pembrokeshire
Client: The Temple Trust
Architect: Roger Clive-Powell
This 1826 shell house, recently derelict, has been restored along with its woodland setting and flanking rockeries by The Temple Trust, after extensive scholarly research.
A full archaeological survey by Cambria Archaeology was undertaken to inform the restoration. Much original material was buried and this has been carefully recovered through excavation. Local sparkling white quartz has been placed on the front, beneath a new crow-step gable. The shells, sourced originally from Welsh beaches instead of from the Caribbean, as was common in the 1820s, have been painstakingly reinstated. The floor, patterned with the knuckle bones of sheep and oxen and the vertebrae of horses, has also been fully restored. The Cilwendeg estate, once one of the finest in the Teifi valley, is a shadow of its former self, but this exemplary restoration points the way to a brighter future.
Commended
3 Naval Terrace, Sheerness, Kent; Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park, Yorkshire
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