Water pistol owners invited to fire at Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece Hill House

Water pistol owners have been invited to test the rain defences of an historic house in Scotland.

The Hill House was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, one of Scotland’s foremost architects, whose art and buildings are famous worldwide.

Considered to be Mackintosh’s domestic masterpiece, the building in Helensburgh, Argyll, was finished in 1904 but time and tide have not been kind to the property.

The house – which is battered by around 190 days of rain a year – has been soaking up water “like a sponge” due to its design and materials, National Trust Scotland (NTS) said.

The external render of the property has not proved watertight and the walls have gradually become saturated and are crumbling, NTS said.

Water has started to threaten its “priceless” interiors, which could be lost forever, conservationists have warned.

With the famous building’s long-term survival in doubt, NTS installed the world’s biggest chainmail structure around the house in June.

It was named the “Hill House Box” to protect it from the elements and stop it dissolving “like a sugar cube”, the trust added.

NTS chiefs are now asking anyone with a water pistol to come to the house on Saturday 28 September to test out its £32m defences.

Emma Sweeney, from NTS, said: “We came up with the idea of the water pistol wet weather test as it’s something that everyone can get involved in and it should show how well the chainmail is doing its job.

“Anyone with a water pistol – the bigger the better! – is invited to come down and douse the house. We’ll have our experts on hand to monitor the experiment and explain why the Box is needed.

“We really need to test out the chainmail from all angles to see how it’s working.”

The experiment, dubbed Douse The House, takes place at 2.30pm on Saturday 28 September and entry is free.

(c) Sky News 2019: Water pistol owners invited to fire at Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece Hill House