Dundurn Castle is a National Historic Site built in the 1830’s by Sir Alan McNab. Designed in the Picturesque Style, with castle, dovecote, cockpit, coach house, gates and garden set above Hamilton harbour, it is one of the premier historic residential properties in Canada.
Converted to museum use by the City of Hamilton in the early twentieth century, it had become seriously deteriorated by the 1990’s when THA was retained by the City to stabilize, rebuild and restore all the buildings on the site.
Extensive archival, archaeological and on-site conservation research was conducted prior to beginning the conservation work.
Materials analysis for historic sites and lime plaster finishes, and paint and wood analysis, was necessary to create compatible and authentic techniques of material repair and reconstruction.
Missing elements of the dovecote and cockpit, both unique aspects of the site, were reconstructed in mock-up and then actual form using traditional heavy timber with scarf jointed structure, hard and softwood cladding and traditional wood and historic detailing recovered from archaeological findings.
