Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain

Episode Synopsis

Fred Dibnah is on a mission to uncover and explain the construction skills that went into the building of Britain, and in this episode he travels to Scotland to demonstrate the engineering and design skills that shaped Scottish baronial style. At Glamis Castle, Fred demonstrates how a simple sandstone tower house was transformed 400 years ago into a great house with more than a passing resemblance to a fairy-tale castle, with the help of stonemasons from Aberdeen and plasterers from Italy. The House of Dun near Montrose is one of the finest country houses to be designed by William Adam, and Fred gets stuck into some ornamental plasterwork at a specialist manufacturer's. But it was Adam's son Robert who made such an impact on house building that he had an architectural style named after him, and to demonstrate his achievement Fred travels to Culzean Castle on the Ayrshire coast.