Four Dials by Tim Chalk

Tim Chalk submitted details of four dials to the 2020 BSS Sundial Design And Restoration Awards
well before the end of the competition but due to an oversight they were not added to the list of entries or the web site at the time. Apologies to Tim for the omission and we encourage visitors to look at them. They have also been added to the full list of entries below.
The four dials are:

Dollar Academy Sundial

Location:

Dollar Academy, Dollar, Clackmannanshire, FK14 7DX

Client:

Dollar Academy Trust

Longitude:

3º40’35” West

Latitude:

56º09’57” North

Designed and made:

By Tim Chalk with dialling support from Alastair Hunter

Commissioned:

October 2015

Completed:

February 2016

Dial Type:

Combination Declining Vertical and Sphere Sundial

Materials:

Cast Glass reinforced Concrete with Corten Steel details

Dimensions:

1550mm x 950mm

Background:

This sundial was commissioned by Dollar Academy to form part of the construction of a new Language building. The intention was to provide a visual enhancement to the building, integrated within its overall design, and to create an educational tool to be used as a teaching aid to demonstrate the science and mathematics lying at its heart. The sphere is marked with meridian lines corresponding to the hours, and steel fins which cast their shadow on the sphere to register the time. The rod forming the sphere’s axis serves as a gnomon on the vertical panel. The sphere and fins continue on the reverse of the panel, which carries an Equation of Time graph and the co-ordinates.

Construction:

The sundial panel was modelled in plaster and the sphere in wax. The corten steel fins and gnomon were set in place before casting, and incorporated into the mould before being cast into glass reinforced concrete.

The following photos show the finished work and the construction process:

Gleneagles House Sundial

Location:

Gleneagles House, Auchterarder, PH3 1PJ

Client:

Petronella and Martin Haldane

Longitude:

3.5º West

Latitude:

56.35º North

Designed and made:

By Tim Chalk

Commissioned

October 2016

Completed

December 2016

Dial Type:

Combination Vertical and Sphere Sundial

Materials:

Cast glass reinforced concrete with graphite inclusion and bronze gnomon on stone base

Dimensions:

i) Sphere: 300mm dia ii) Plinth: 1000mm (wide) x 1000mm (high) x 450mm (deep)

Background:

The commissioning of this sundial put right a long standing omission. Elaborate and complicated sundials have been a particular feature of large Scottish country houses for several centuries and this significant historic house was in want of one. The clients had already created a mown labyrinth on the lawn with a stone block at its centre, and the design brief was to create a sundial using this stone as a plinth. Without wanting to create a pastiche I looked to the Scottish tradition of elaborate sundials for inspiration and proposed a combination dial made up of a sphere dial and a vertical dial. The Sphere sits on top of the plinth with its axis acting as a gnomon on the face of the plinth. Round the “equator” of the sphere projecting rods cast their shadows onto meridian markings to indicate the hour. Because the surface of the stone plinth is fairly rough and uneven the reading is by necessity not precise. To accentuate this characteristic the numerals on the face are placed in an apparently random way, though they are actually positioned to register as accurate a reading as possible on the stone. This idea is developed with an inscription on the sphere quoting John Maynard Keynes; “It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong”.

Construction:

The sphere was carved in plaster and cast into glass reinforced concrete with a graphite inclusion.

The following photos show the finished work and the construction process:

“A Year In The Life Of The Manx Shearwater” Sculptural Sundial

Location:

Coire Dubh, Isle of Rum, Inner Hebrides, PH43 4RR

Longitude:

6º16’61” West

Latitude:

57º 0’34”North

Client:

Scottish Natural Heritage

Designed and made:

ByTim Chalk; Steel cutting by Forth Steel

Commissioned

October 2018

Completed

March 2019

Dial Type:

Free standing Horizontal Dial/Solar Calendar

Materials:

Cast Iron and Corten Steel

Dimensions:

1 metre (high) x 2 metres (wide) x 2 metres (deep)

Background:

This sundial was commissioned by SNH to be sited on the Isle of Rum on a footpath leading to an important Manx Shearwater colony. The intention is to provide interpretive information about the Shearwaters in an interesting and imaginative way, creating a point of interest for visitors and to encourage them to make the final ascent to the colony itself. The challenge was to design a feature that sensitively blends with the surroundings while also creating enough impact to capture the imagination; and of course to function accurately when the sun shines! When it does the cast iron Manx Shearwater casts its shadow onto the appropriate spot on the horizontal plate and the corresponding information.

Construction and Installation:

The most significant practical challenge of this project was the site – at an elevation of 300metres on a footpath up a Highland Corry, inaccessible by any vehicle except an all terrain “Argocat” capable of scaling rocky banks and crossing white water burns! The choice of Corten steel was made for visual reasons and because it was one of a very few materials that could be expected to withstand the extreme weather conditions it would face. However, the weight of the material meant getting the sundial on site and installation an interesting process! This was made up for by the construction process; with the exception of the cast iron bird the entire design was digitised and handed over to metal fabricators, who cut the corten steel digitally from the files provided.

The following photos show the finished work and the construction process:

Crieff Hydro Sundial

Location:

Crieff Hydro, Strathearn House, Ferntower Road, Crieff, Perthshire, PH7 3LQ

Longitude:

3º50’31” West

Latitude:

56º22’35” North

Client:

Crieff Hydro

Designed and made:

By Tim Chalk

Commissioned

March 2020

Completed

September 2020

Dial Type:

Free standing combination horizontal and Equatorial Dial

Materials:

Bronze, Sandblasted Glass, Cast Glass Reinforced Concrete, Gold Leaf

Dimensions:

1300mm (high) x 600mm (dia)

Background:

This sundial was commissioned to sit in a prominent position outside the hotel main entrance to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Hotel as a Temperance and Hydropathic Spa in 1868. The brief was for a sculptural and striking sundial that was recognisably a sundial. My design developed the theme of water and woodland, inspired by the hotel’s setting and its history as a Hydropathic Spa. The dial table features the Hotel motto, a quote from the Greek poet Pindar, in English and Greek, and the plinth is decorated with leaf and water motifs in bas relief. The dial itself is a combination of horizontal and equatorial dial. This is a form I developed a few years ago, where the centre of the equatorial disc is glazed with etched glass to enable the viewer in the winter months to read the horizontal dial. This form is especially suited to northern latitudes, as the steep tilt of the gnomon makes the underside of the disc difficult to read.

Construction and Installation:

The plinth and table were modelled in clay and wax and cast into glass reinforced concrete, with a bronze powder inclusion for the plinth. The equatorial disc was modelled in plaster and cast into solid bronze. The glass in the equatorial disc aperture is etched with calligraphic text. Once the sundial was installed I laid pebble mosaic round the plinth to create a base and to provide a hard surface for the viewer to stand on.

The following photos show the finished work and the construction process: