21/10/2026
There comes a point when we have to stop expecting the custodians of historic buildings to behave like Don Quixote: fighting windmills alone, spending their own money, time and energy against impossible odds, while everyone else waits to see whether they succeed.
James Brown fought for Baltersan for more than 30 years. I am trying to continue that fight today. But saving buildings like Baltersan cannot depend indefinitely on the determination, financial endurance and stubbornness of one individual after another.
Too often, those genuinely trying to save our built heritage face obstacle after obstacle: complicated funding structures, unrealistic requirements, endless assessments, fragmented responsibilities and a tendency for meaningful support to arrive only when a building is already approaching the point of no return. Then, when the cost has multiplied, we hear that restoration is “too expensive”, “too difficult” or “unrealistic”.
There is a dangerous circular logic in that. We wait because restoration is difficult. The building deteriorates because we wait. The cost rises because it deteriorates. And eventually the increased cost becomes the justification for having done nothing earlier. Meanwhile, the people who actually try are sometimes treated almost as eccentric dreamers: applauded if somehow they succeed, quietly forgotten if they fail.
That attitude has to change.
These projects are not simply about repairing old stone. Properly approached, they can preserve craftsmanship, create apprenticeships, support local businesses, attract visitors, create employment and return important buildings to the communities around them. Baltersan could once again become a place of craftsmanship, education, music, art, heritage and public engagement.
The skills described in the post I am sharing are themselves part of the heritage we risk losing.Of course restoration must be responsible, properly planned and financially credible. But the answer cannot simply be to place ever higher hurdles in front of the people prepared to attempt it.
We need institutions, communities, funders, craftspeople and owners working together much earlier; not standing at the roadside waiting to see whether the person pushing the cart manages to reach the top of the hill alone.Because ultimately, the most unrealistic approach to endangered heritage is not trying to save it.
The truly unrealistic option is doing nothing.
An Italian inscription dated 1529, only a few decades before Baltersan was built, reads:
“Chi po non vo, chi vo non po, chi sa non fa, chi fa non sa, et così el mundo mal va.” “Those who can, will not; those who will, cannot. Those who know, do not act; those who act, do not know. And so the world goes badly.”
When King James V commissioned the Stirling Heads in the 16th century, these became part of a visual blueprint for the Scottish Renaissance—grand oak roundels that defined elite craftsmanship. Centuries later, as part of the restoration of Stirling Castle, the monumental task of replicating those ...
