The Lady Guilford

Comprehensive paint research was carried out and a Conservation Report produced concerning this remarkable nineteenth-century boat on loan to the Scottish Maritime museum.

  • X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis on the paints at the stern

    X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis on the paints at the stern

  • Cross sectional microscope image of the paint layers inside the boat

    Cross sectional microscope image of the paint layers inside the boat

  • Views inside the boat

    Views inside the boat

  • Views inside the boat

    Views inside the boat

The boat, a sailing galley, was commissioned by the Marquess of Bute in 1819. It was built by Scottish boat-builder Lachlan McLean using local oak and larch timber. The boat was later re-rigged as a schooner, becoming a working boat, and in later years an engine was added. She remained in service until the 1930s. A very early, complete and largely unaltered survivor of a Scots wooden vessel of any type, The Lady Guildford is possibly the oldest surviving Scottish built boat.

We were asked to complete a comprehensive Conservation Report, in collaboration with Chris Weeks of Manx National Heritage on the Lady Guilford, at the Scottish Maritime Museum for The Mount Stuart Trust. 

By taking paint samples and analysing these we discovered the original green paint scheme surviving beneath accumulated layers of later overpaints. This detailed analysis of the paint layers provided an insight into the nature of the alterations and additions made to the vessel throughout her one hundred-year working life.