KIRN PERGOLA DAMAGED IN MOTOR ACCIDENT

Written by Gordon Neish Friday, 23 March 2012 11:49

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A CAST IRON structure in Kirn, near Dunoon,  dating from the 1800s was badly damaged on Monday evening (March 19) when a car smashed into it.

Nobody was hurt in the incident - believed to have been caused by a driver’s attention being drawn away by a child passenger - but damage running into five figures was caused to the historic structure.

A leg was broken off the structure and an intricate piece of decorative casting was smashed to bits in the impact.

 

 

 

The artefact, a pergola, was donated to the people of Kirn by the directors of Kirn Pier in 1877. In recent years it has been looked after by EnviroKirn volunteers, although it is thought the pergola belongs ultimately to Argyll and Bute Council. A council spokeswoman, however, said that the estates department was checking ownership before any decision about repair was made.

One iron-worker in Edinburgh, who specialises in historic repairs, felt the Kirn pergola could be expensive to repair. He said: “The leg would be relatively simple but, depending on its condition, the decorative casting may need to be started from scratch. It could involve taking a mould from one of the other faces, although if you were lucky it could be arc-welded.”