Two apprentices from Historic Scotland’s stonemasonry training centre at Elgin have been crowned champions of the first Scottish Stonemasonry Apprentice Skills Competition, which was held at Glasgow’s Metropolitan College last month (April).

Kenny McCaffrey and Malcolm Hutcheon, both 38 and adult apprentices, beat off competition from Edinburgh’s Telford College and Glasgow Metropolitan College.

The competition lasted three days during which the teams had to make a pillar. The winning one by Kenny and Malcolm is shown in the photograph on the right.

The apprentices were assessed on their building and dressing skills by judges Lawrence Begg of Historic Scotland, Steven Laing of Laing Traditional Masonry and Justin Egerton from The National Trust for Scotland stonemasonry facility at Culzean Castle. Each piece of work was marked ‘blind’, to guarantee impartiality.

As their prize, Kenny and Malcolm will now head out to the United States for two weeks at the Virginia Lime Works, where they can further their knowledge of the industry.

The competition was sponsored by Historic Scotland and supported by the Scottish Stone Liaison Group, and was held in partnership with ConstructionSkills to celebrates the stonemasonry talent and skill Scotland has to offer.

The pillars produced by the teams during the competition will now be transformed into sundials and donated to a local school or hospice.