Two apprentices from Historic Scotland's Stonemasonry Training facility, Elgin, have been crowned champions of the first Stonemasonry Apprentice Skills Competition, which was held at Glasgow's Metropolitan College over the weekend.

Kenny McCaffrey, 38, and Malcolm Hutcheon, 38, both adult apprentices, beat off competition from Edinburgh's Telford College and Glasgow Metropolitan College, as judges deemed the pillar they produced over the three day competition to be the best.

Kenny and Malcolm will now head out to the United States of America, to experience a two week work placement at Virginia Lime Works, with accommodation and flights provided.

All three teams 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. However, the sharpness and obvious attention to detail by Kenny and Malcolm ensured their win.

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The pillars produced by each team, will now be transformed into sundials and donated to a local school or hospice.

Graeme Ogilvy, director for ConstructionSkills Scotland, said: "Congratulations to Malcolm and Kenny who have proved themselves to be worthy winners, but the competition was close. This weekend has been a very positive one for the traditional skills industry and for all of the apprentices involved.

"ConstructionSkills is proud to have been involved in the organisation of such a successful competition and we look forward to continuing our work alongside Historic Scotland by supporting apprentice stonemasons as they learn their trade."

Graham Campbell, training manager at the Elgin Stonemasonry Training Facility said: "I am delighted that the lads have won here today. It's been a great opportunity for them and their all hard work and effort has paid off.

"I have been out to work with the team at Virginia Lime Works and learned a lot, so I'm confident that both Kenny and Malcolm will definitely benefit from the experience."

Chris McGregor, depute director of Technical Conservation Group at Historic Scotland, sponsors of the competition, congratulated Malcolm and Kenny.

"The inception of this competition is incredibly positive as it's important that we continue to raise awareness of traditional skills as a craft. Historic Scotland is delighted to be working alongside ConstructionSkills to support the stone industry by being a part of it," he said.

The competition, which is sponsored by Historic Scotland and supported by the Scottish Stone Liaison Group, in partnership with ConstructionSkills, was the first of its kind and celebrates the stonemasonry talent and skill Scotland has to offer.

(GK/JM)