Russ McLean
Argyll Group Ltd, formerly Argyll Group plc
LinkedIn As At 7-7-2024
The undernoted is an excerpt from the LinkedIn website (here). Some of our shareholders from the Unique Property plc and Argyll Group plc (public limited company) days have advised they do not subscribe to LinkedIn and therefore they cannot access that website or the relevant page for their due-diligence. For the sake of good form and full transparency, here is a screenshot that the subscribers to LinkedIn can see. It is placed here so that our non-LinkedIn shareholders can see the content.
^^ Aidan O’Donnell + Russ McLean + Iain Sim ^^
Trustees of The TS Queen Mary Charity
^^ Prepared & Registered at OSCR in Dundee By Russ McLean ^^
In 2015 the TS Queen Mary was provided with the appropriate Load Line Exemption Certification etc., and towed from Tilbury Docks near to London to the Dales Drydock at Greenock near to Glasgow…
^^ TS Queen Mary Coming Home ^^
Then seeing the ship from one of the best locations in the maritime world, it soon became clear that in 1933, the shipbuilders constructed these vessels to las, such was the good condition of the hull.
^^ TS Queen Mary At Drydock In Scotland ^^
Here is a comparison of the “before” and “after” condition as work progressed to return the ship to static quayside museum and educational duties…
^^ TS Queen Mary “Before” and “After” First Phase of Restoration ^^
For further detail of the TS Queen Mary adventure, please…
Click Here
Technical Specification As Best As Is Possible On The Quixotic Wikipedia: Click Here
***********
^^ Chief Engineer Donnie Woodrow + Harbour Master Russ McLean + RNLI Coxswain Jim McPhee ^^
Previous career included driving ships such as MV Lochmor along with the benefit of remarkably decent and kind friends. In this instance, Chief Engineer Donnie Woodrow to the left and RNLI Coxswain Jim McPhee to the right. Happy days indeed.
^^ MV Lochmor At Annual Drydock Survey ^^
***********
Going further back in the career path and 1984 saw duty on the Island of Islay…
^^ Russ McLean and Sheena McGillivray on The Island of Islay ^^
Start Your Unique Property Sleuthing Practice.
What do you reckon?
Is this the spot where Russ & Sheena were standing?
& Compare The Photos/Buildings.
From this end of the keyboard it is a hugely dissonant thing to compare the modern day (via interactive computer) to an event that took place exactly 40 years ago!
The Google Streetview interactive system is a genuinely excellent facility to help you find the unique home that you have been searching for. It can also give you an insight into the neighbourhood where you may be living as you can have a remote “virtual” wander around the area. Though please bear in mind that some of the information on these Google Streetview facilities may be a year or two old. It is mind boggling how Google managed the digitally map vast swathes of the planet in the first place. Credit is due to Google in buckets as the company manage to update these interactive maps on a regular basis. Thank you Google.
***********
Buildings & Jobs
There are now 203 new jobs and 78 building renovations since the police career was ended by partial disability and the land-based nautical vocation (harbour master) expired due to inability to ingather relatively light (but water-logged) ship heaving lines.
With a huge irony, becoming disabled and as one person put it at a particularly brutal interview on the east coast for a (non-physical) job as Harbour Master, he ignored the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (here) (now the Equality Act 2010) and said: “you are virtually unemployable and of no use to us Mr McLean”
The irony being that an “unemployable” disabled person was, through dint of fate and several very good friends, able enough to circumnavigate the particular set of challenges and go on to create 203 jobs across a 35 year period.
The LinkedIn page is necessarily a set of short précis. So a triumvirate of examples have been included in the second part of this page to provide real-world examples and links to the websites/further information, . Hopefully this is of help.
With respect to buildings. The project management of these as undertaken by Russ McLean ranges from historic Grade “A Listed buildings such as Noss Head Lighthouse Station…
^^ One of Six Buildings Restored ^^
^^ At Noss Head lighthouse Station ^^
Further details will appear in the nascent social media account known as the “Lighthouse Bulletin”. The purpose of which is to either bring lighthouse buildings back from ruination, or to prevent the risk of them becoming derelict.
Historically, since 1986, there have been:-
=> Davaar Island Lighthouse Station
=> Ailsa Craig Lighthouse Station
=> Strathy Point Lighthouse Station
=> Tod Head Lighthouse Station
=> Toward Lighthouse Station (R/O purposes mainly).
However, as of 23rd May 2024, upon a major review, and especially given the atonement we need to make in respect of Ailsa Craig Lighthouse Station* we are changing the format of how we:-
=> (i) Renovate lighthouse buildings.
=> (ii) Make each lighthouse home affordable to buy and to heat.
=> (iii) Ensure the safe and secure future of each lighthouse station.
This will change from our current propensity to
(iv) Purchase a commercial lighthouse station via a group of friends (all chipping in and banning bank mortgages).
We will now be including two new formats:-
(v) Purchasing dilapidated lighthouse stations such as Ailsa Craig and Neist Point via the Land Reform Act 2018 “Right To Buy.” (click here and archived: here).
(vi) A hybrid of “iv” and “v” above. Registering either a formal charity or a not-for-profit entity and bypassing what is, with all due respect, a challenging process in terms of the mechanics of the “Right To Buy” legislation.
The Land reform Acts 2003 and 2018 are truly excellent pieces of legislation. We also commend Mercedes Villalba MSP’s proposed…
Proposed Land Ownership and Public Interest (Scotland) Bill
Click Here
However, when the winds are Gale Force 11 (Beaufort Scale: Here) and the lighthouse roof has just partially blown off in a storm, sometimes there is a need to move faster than normal. Hence the option at “vi” being the registered charity or note-for-profit hybrid.
Whichever one of the three options deployed at (iv) and (v) and (vi) above, the lighthouse station will go from this….
^^ Noss Head Lighthouse Station Before Renovation ^^
Transformed, with the much appreciated assistance of Northern Lighthouse Board assisting us in opening a proper (old school) trade account to access their bespoke and remarkable lighthouse paint (here ), we were very fortunate to achieve this…
^^ Noss Head Lighthouse Station After Renovation ^^
Around the corner, the preparation work is more clear. According to the Northern Lighthouse Board team, the preparation is (in their terms), 80% of the work and importance in ensuring the best possible finished surface that will enable the lighthouse protective coat to last the longest…
^^ Noss Head Lighthouse Station During Renovation ^^
This certainly appears to be true. Indeed, these walls were painted in 2018 and now, 6 years (plus several storms) later, in 2024, 6 years later, they have stood the test of time…
^^ Noss Head Lighthouse Station After Renovation ^^
It is, of course, very important to ensure the integrity of the roof. Especially at a place and environment where the sun can cause heatstroke temperatures in the summer and the opposite rage of the spectrum can see horrendous storms and ice attack and attach (respectively) to the roof structure in the winters.
Fortunately, after specialist flat roof engineers inspected the main accommodation block roof at Noss Head, the “sponson” type material (used by the RNLI on their inshore lifeboats) and as applied to the roof at Noss Head had stood the test of time. This is it in 2018 at 17 years of age (the roof not Steve Williams)…
^^ Noss Head Lighthouse Station During Renovation ^^
It Is Vital To Maintain The Roofs Twice A Year
^^ Noss Head Lighthouse Station After Renovation ^^
The Paint Is As Prescribed By The Northern Lighthouse Board
The Roof Material Is As Prescribed By The Manufacturer
(30 Year Lifespan)
^^ Noss Head Lighthouse Station After Renovation ^^
***********
Lighthouse Buildings & Their Preservation
In terms of the protocols at (i) to (vi) as indicated above, in order to for the renovate lighthouse buildings to become viable and therefore produce sufficient budget funds to maintain the structures each year, a lot of thought and (35 years of) practical experience has been brought to the matter.
=> Crucially, each (former lighthouse keeper’s house) house should, wherever possible, be title-split and separately owned.
This might seem counter-intuitive. However, new legislation ensures communal areas are maintained to a high standard.
The reasons for separate ownership is vital to ensure the future s of these iconic buildings.
We have found that to be far and away the best structure. One relatively normal person/family can usually cope with one Grade A listed building. Both on a physical maintenance and importantly on a financial viability basis.
Whereas one person (even with the best of intentions), will frequently struggle to the point of collapse if they take on a full lighthouse station of many buildings to renovate.
The majority of traditional lighthouse stations around the UK, typically have 5 to 8 separate “Grade A” or “Grade B” Listed buildings.
Scotland “Grades” of listed buildings whereas other nations within the UK have “Classes” of listed buildings. Scotland (click here); England (click here), Wales (here) an Northern Ireland (here).
Listed buildings in Northern Ireland – Wikipedia
Additional material relating to and expanding/clarifying the LinkedIn summaries shall appear here soon.
For example: The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2018 introduced a further compulsory right, the Right to Buy Land to Further Sustainable Development (Part 5).
***********
To Access The Live LinkedIn Website, Please:
Click Here
***********
To Return To This Website’s Front Homepage, Please:
Click Here
***********
.
.
