This video has a correction: it originally implied that all the individual chainmail rings were hand-sewn together. While the sheets of chainmail were linked that way on-site, ring by ring, the individual rings within those sheets were connected by machine! As this was an easy line to crop out in KZfaq's editor, it's been removed. You can see all corrections on this channel at www.tomscott.com/corrections/

The whole thing looks so modern, but what really got me were those box chandeliers - they look like something I'd see in a house built today!

Architecture isn't normally something I talk about. But architecture that's being protected by eight tons of chainmail? That's very much in my wheelhouse. Thanks so much to all the Hill House team: as ever, there's a link in the description to find out more!

15 years later : so we have build this box around the chainmail box

The lady's Scottish brogue is so enchanting that I felt like I almost needed the subtitles on to fully understand her.

For a victorian era house, that is astoundingly modern. I wouldn't feel out of place living in it with a PC, a cellphone and stuff.

Chainmail went from protecting human beings from danger to protecting architectural works of art. Quite the evolution I might say.

I visited Hill House just three weeks before the initial lockdown. I enjoyed seeing the house, its decor and contents, but being able to view the house from the walkways of the box was amazing. To view the walls and roof at such close quarters was a really unusual thing and made visiting Hill House really exciting. Also would give the tearoom a big thumbs up, lovely Rennie-MacIntosh crockery and even the biscuits and cakes had themed icing!

The juxtaposition of the tall, flat walls with soaring chimneys and turrets that call back both to ancient keeps and Victorian manors, with the nearly Prairie-School Modern Style, is as fascinating as it is jarring. The interior is just magnificent. And can we all take a moment to recognize the driest piece of natural ground in all of Scotland?

This is really a house-sized example of a box being as interesting as the product inside it. They'll need to call some KZfaqrs in 15 years for the Hill House Unboxing 🏠📦

Ironically, building a chainmail box to promote this house is incredible outside-the-box thinking.

I love the forward thinking of making the conservation efforts part of the viewing experience. Not only does it impress the importance and specialness of the house, but it also gives more of an experience rather than less. I hope, once the house no longer needs it's chainmail skirt, that they consider keeping it.

Everybody talking about what a brilliant architect he was while the house he built is dissolving like a sugar cube in the rain.

Oh Scotland, never change. "This historical site is dissolving and we need to protect it from the elements! What ought we do?" "Make it wear chainmail."

The giant cage is cool and all but WOW that house is incredible for it’s time. Architecture is fascinating

Nobody does videos like you Tom. I've learned more watching your videos than I ever did at school. Thank you

I stumbled upon this video and I’m glad I did! What a amazing piece of engineering the “Box” is! The house itself is truly amazing, to say it was ahead of the times is damn near a understatement! I’ve seen modern houses that use the accents that this house had over 100 years ago, truly amazing!

Thanks so much for visiting The Hill House, and for spreading the word about our vital conversation project to protect this iconic building. Tom Scott = legend! ❤️

The concept of putting a three-story house in a five-story box messes with my sense of scale so much that even though I'm watching a normal-sized Tom walk around it, my brain wants to think I'm looking at a dollhouse! I'd love to go there in person one day. I wonder if the illusion would be even stronger, or broken by having a better sense of perspective.

really very interesting this approach that during a renovation it is important to let the public see what is renovated!

It seems so peaceful in the area outside the house and in the box. I love this.

Am I the only one who finds it amusing that we're using Medieval armor to protect a Victorian house in the 21st century? It's such a mix of time periods, all you'd need is for the chainmail box to be held up by ancient Greek columns and you'd have the proverbial cherry on top!

I love that he's talking about how the house exterior is quickly disintegrating and after "only" 120 years it needs to be fixed up. As a Canadian, it is amazing when any building lasts 120 years and we would consider that to be very well made. It appears to be in better condition than 50 year old houses around here. Mind you, this is survivorship bias in action and the house likely had continuous maintenance over its history.

Very nicely presented and certainly an intriguing approach to preservation. Thanks for sharing this.

I would love to visit this house someday. I'm so glad the heritage organizations have a plan to preserve it.

100 years from now : We've built a box to preserve the only chainmail conservation box.

As a Scot I’m loving this Scottish mini series and I didn’t even know they had built this structure around the house. Glad to see that this will help preserve it for many years to come.

This is just a really good KZfaq video. Never would’ve thought about such a thing but interesting as hell nonetheless. Really well shot, edited and presented. All around refreshing.

Thanks Tom, I absolutely love the work of CRM, and The Hill House is one of his finest examples. I didn't know or realise it was in a bad way but I'm so glad that it's being conserved in such a forward thinking way.

The fact that the chainmail was hand-sewn is crazy. Edit: I guess it’s not actually hand-sewn, and has been corrected in the video!

It seems the "box" is as much a part of the house's history as the house itself now! Would almost be a shame to take it down when the restoration is complete

Amazing! Thank you fo this highlight Tom! Very interesting.

I’d never heard of this. Thanks for calling attention to it. Very cool!

Here in the western US we have big problems with adobe brick dissolving. We have lost so many structures that way. Turns out they need a roof. Glad to see people taking care of buildings like this.

Tom: "I think I have done all the ideas I can find in the UK" Also Tom: "here's a modern day house made during the Victorian era covered in chainmail" Never change Tom, I love how you seem to discover new things, all as facinating as the last.

Thank you Tom, you show me unique and interesting things that I will most likely never see in person.

I don't know why, but this video is fascinating me - thank you Tom for bringing up so many different kinds of topics!

Scotland's best architect builds a house that dissolves in the rain. There's a joke in there somewhere. Monty Python could find it, no doubt.

I remember visiting it a few years ago, and there's a walkway that goes straight over the house. I would have loved to see you try this, cause there was an interesting phycological effect: You can see through the bottom of the walkway quite clearly, so when you're up there it feels like you're walking on the roof. The fun part is when you get to the edge of the house, your brain is tricked into thinking you're about to stroll off the roof and fall to your death. My whole family tried this and all experienced getting nervous and stalling as we tried to walk forwards. We all laughed at each other cause it looked really funny, not being able to continue walking along the path because of the perceived drop.

This is fascinating, so freaking interesting. Love the ingenuity of this restoration

After the disastrous fire at Macintosh’s school in Glasgow, I’m so glad Scotland sees it fit to make the massive investment to preserve this gorgeous house. I saw the Glasgow school on my honeymoon in 1991 and was so moved by the work of Scotland’s greatest architect. He’s a national treasure.

This is VERY clever way to save the buildings. Those walkways really add values to the whole experience.

That was absolutely fascinating. It’s amazing what lengths we’ll go through to preserve something iconic. There’s probably many features within the house of what you seen in modern architecture today. If you placed it within a brand new development, give it a new stucco exterior and paint it’d probably get lost within the neighborhood. The only difference would prune it’s size.

I'm no architect.. nor do I know anything about design but I'd never say that house was 120 years old.. absolutely amazing and awesome to see the engineering that's preserving it!

I was there before they put the box around it, I never knew about the dissolving issue so let's just say I've been very confused every time I drove past it until this video came out.

Very cool! Thanks for showing this.

This is quite fascinating! Adding it to the list of things to see, if I ever make it to Scotland.

I love Scottish accents. Thanks for taking the time to report on the Hill House Tom!

I studied architecture at the now burned Glasgow school of Art, Mackintosh's true masterpiece. It's great to see some of his legacy being treasured like it deserves to be.

I love all of these videos. I love learning about things that I would almost certainly have never otherwise known about. But, not gonna lie, I keep coming back to this one just to listen to Rachel.

Very cool!!! Thanks for saving her!!!🙏🤗🙏🤗

I had the pleasure of staying in the top floor of this house for a week when it was still available to be booked as accommodation. It was gorgeous, and in the evenings after the public had left, having drinks in the garden was amazing

They did something similar with access to the scaffolding around Himeji Castle in Japan during its years long renovation. Unique views of the exterior.

This was really cool to watch! Not sure I'll ever make it there, so I'm happy to get to see this video!

I had a similar experience at Tyntesfield, where they had free-standing scaffolding over the entire house. It was fascinating to be able to watch work on the roof being done up close.

"You wouldn't be watching this if it wasn't for the box" isn't true. If the video was titled "A 100 year old house growing like a sponge because of scottish rain" I would still be totally here watching this.

I always appreciate how fully you tell a story without dragging it out just to reach yt ad optimal lengths like some others

This is really moving on so many levels. And brilliant on so many levels as well.

I'll be going there this summer, thank you Tom 😊

About 20 years ago I was involved in a study looking at nominating Hill House and other CRM buildings as a world heritage site.... Lovely to see it being cared for

Being German, I had my troubles understanding Rachel Thompson speaking. I even had to turn the subtitles on. But I really think that her Scottish accent gives her presentation some flavour that otherwise would have been missing. I love to hear when people carry their home on their tongues. So thank you for challenging my listening comprehension, Mrs Thompson 💐

Fascinating, and thank goodness for closed captions....

I got a real lift out of seeing this video. How brilliant, how creative and good on the Scot's for protecting an important part of their latter day heritage. This vignette was a welcome relief from the disaster that's unfolding in Ukraine. Thanks.

When Tom said that the walls were made of chainmail, I was like "oh, I guess the stuff can be made in bulk by machines these days!" Then the lady said that it was hand-sown and I was like 😳😳😳😳😲😲😲😲

Imagine being a cat and hearing about a box so big there's an entire house inside of it

The house 🏠 that needed a HOUSE 🏚 because it doesn't like the rain 🌦? BRILLIANT 👏!

I would not be watching this is an understatement, but now I want to see more!

Can't wait for the full platemail house knight

I could listen to Rachel talking in that absolutely amazing accent for hours no matter the subject. To me, the accent is just so much more expressive than regular english (I'm german, we have a ton of accents as well, but none that come close).

I'm chuffed that something this brilliant happened!

This is so amazing. I want to visit. The house in a box! And the interior, Charles Rennie Mackintosh's design is just so comfortable.

As a Scot, it's mental seeing Tom talk about these different attractions that I've never even heard before despite living here my whole life! These videos are definitely gonna add a few locations to go and visit for the bucket list!

I'm just picturing someone going to an armorer and ordering a suit of chainmail for a house now. Really interesting in how they need to dry it out but not too fast. Here's hoping they can preserve it so it can be admired for many years to come.

I live in Helensburgh and occasionally walk past the hill house. I didn’t know even half the info in this video. A fantastic effort by all concerned.

THIS IS SO AWESOME! I love this!

And here was me saying Tom could make a 3 minute video on paint drying interesting, but a house that will toke 19 years to dry surely beats that. 🤪🏡

Would've been cool if they talked about the long term fixes. Once dried out, what will they be doing to protect it when the box is finally removed?

Brilliant! Wildly interesting. I’ve never seen anything like it. ❤️❤️❤️

Astonishing views of history and preservation at its finest.

listening to scottish people speak is always such a delight, almost no matter the subject in this case the subject was also interesting, which is a nice bonus

I've visited The Hill House years ago, before the box. It's spectacular. I visited again after the box had been built - and it adds a whole new perspective. Well worth a visit to support the conservation effort.

Thank you sharing it!

So engaging, well done to all concerned. 👌

That’s one hell of a Scottish Accent

With her pronunciation, all I heard was "hell house"...

So ahead of it's time that it reintroduced problems that were solved for over a thousand years!

Another Gem of a video, Tom. And, it's only a short drive from where I live...👍

I'm a Helensburgh native who moved to Glasgow for its arid climate, so it was nice to hear someone as authoritative on facts as Tom confirm that it is indeed one of the wettest parts of Scotland.

They did a similar thing for the Himeji Castle in Japan. I was there for the start of the repair, and went back 3 years and then 7 years later. I saw some amazing angles during those visits. But having it in a giant box for so long did still hurt tourism for the city. At least such a massive repair will not have to occur again in our lifetime.

Proud to be a ring maker myself! I had no idea of this use. Very nice!

Well done Scotland! ...and Thanks Tom. :)

Hey Tom, you might want to look into So-il Architects. They've been exploring chainmail meshes as a design strategy for open-air spaces between forms rather than just for preservation. Great video!

Such a shame chainmail is so hard to get a hold of because Zombies rarely drop it nowadays

Wow I can’t believe how so much ahead of it’s time the architecture was

What a very clever concept.

"Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

Why is it always "This house was build by an incredibly influential architect and is world famous. Unfortunately it is made entirely of balsa and Wrigley's brand chewing gum and is located in a bog. The original family who owned the house complained of muskrats nesting in the foyer?"

It's really a great project! The stairs and walkways around the structure is great for tourism, but the renovators can use pics from an i-Phone (or such) to map the layers of phases in the restructuring and renovations !!

Incredible idea and Job, It's amazing what you can do with $$$ resources and time.

The Scottish accent is always lovely to hear too.