On Monday morning I went to investigate further the possibility of introducing electricity into the ice house for the ice House commissions and for the wider use of the building as a venue for historical study, educational tours and perhaps more artistic interventions ( Historic Munument Consent pending)
I was joined by Highland Council electrician John MacLeod who could not have been more helpful. Without going into detail...if we get consent from historic Scotland then the interior of the ice House may be lit and properly viewed for the first time.
John tells me that the Ice House inBrora also has electricity and has hosted a few events. A metal grated door on the outside allows visitors to peer into the chamber withour entering and allows for ventialtion, keeping the building try. The damp in Helmsdale's ice house is certainly a point that the artisst working in their will have to address when designing their projects.
It seems likely that the temporary power source will come from the war memorial which stands a little way from the ice house and whose clock chimes every 15 minutes.
I ask John if he'll let me see inside, and he happily agrees!
Not many people have seen the inside of the tower, so I feel quite priveliged and despite my wee, old camera and the sparse lighting, I managed to get some ok photos.
Stepping iside , it isn't quite as I had imagined, a simple breeze block interior and rusty looking ladders that progress in teirs up the tower. Where is the spiral stair case? no princess?
I head shakily up the first set of ladders which leads to the first landing and where the first lot of mechanisms are bolted to the wall, the mechanisms read :
W POTTS & SONS, MAKERS 1924, LEEDS ENGLAND.
John has been further up the ladders to the top, and had the unfortunate experience of being inside when the bells have rung - a cartoon moment, everything vibrating.
