The Museum of…
Gairloch Heritage Museum
This small independent museum reflects the strong Gaelic tradition of a coastal area of the Scottish Highlands
Where: The Gairloch Heritage Museum is in Gairloch, a remote coastal community in the North West Highlands of Scotland. It is housed in an old farmsteading – a collection of barns around a courtyard that is rented from a local farmer.
What: “We are a small, independent museum with a large local membership and we are an important tourist attraction in the area,” says its curator Karen Thompson. Its archive and library attracts family historians and other researchers interested in Scottish heritage.
Opened: 1977. The museum was created by a group of volunteers that wanted to preserve the heritage and material culture of Gairloch parish. It is open from April to October.
Collection: With exhibits that range from fishing, milling and woolcrafts to whisky, geology and peat, the museum’s collection reflects the social history of the area. “Our objects are associated with the domestic and working conditions of the people of Gairloch parish,” says Thompson.
“They reflect the strong crofting and fishing traditions, the skills particular to this area and the challenges of living and working in a remote part of the country. The collection also reflects the amazing landscape and wildlife of Gairloch, and its geology.”
Highlights: “The Gairloch Pictish stone is the symbol of Gairloch Heritage Museum and perhaps our best-known exhibit,” says Thompson. Showing a fish and the lower part of a bird, it was the first Pictish symbol stone found on the West Coast mainland and is thought to be an early Class 1 symbol stone carved between 500 and 700 AD.
Many groups visit the museum specifically to see the original mechanism and Fresnel lens from the nearby Rudha Reidh lighthouse. “As well as being a triumph of industrial engineering, the lens is an aesthetically stunning object,” Thompson says.
Help at hand: Thompson is the sole full-time curator. The museum also has a project curator for 18 months, who is funded by Museums Galleries Scotland. “We have a magnificent band of volunteers – more than 50 in total,” Thompson says.
“They range from students doing Duke of Edinburgh awards to retired members of the community with an interest in local history. Our oldest volunteer is 90 years old, and he is very active.”
Budget: The museum receives “a small but significant amount” of funding towards its running costs from the Highland Council. Other sums are raised through entry fees (£4 adult, £1 child), memberships and donations.
“We run at least one fundraising event every month and rely on the support of the community,” Thompson says.
Visitors: 6,500 in 2014.
Sticky moment: “Our sticky moment is very much in the present,” says Thompson. “The Highland Council voted to reduce independent museums’ funding by 50% over the next three years, so the museums in the Highlands are working together to find ways to plug this gap. Many of us rely on this money for basics, such as paying our electricity bill, so there is a real chance that some museums will close.”
Survival tip: An active programme of exhibitions helps the museum stay in the public eye. “In order to survive in the current climate, we need to be able to run the museum on a shoestring, and keep our profile as high as possible in the community and beyond,” Thompson says.
Future plans: The museum has received round-one funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for plans that include a move to another local building – a former cold-war era radar station – where there would be room to start a community centre with, says Thompson, “a museum at its heart”.
Where: The Gairloch Heritage Museum is in Gairloch, a remote coastal community in the North West Highlands of Scotland. It is housed in an old farmsteading – a collection of barns around a courtyard that is rented from a local farmer.
What: “We are a small, independent museum with a large local membership and we are an important tourist attraction in the area,” says its curator Karen Thompson. Its archive and library attracts family historians and other researchers interested in Scottish heritage.
Opened: 1977. The museum was created by a group of volunteers that wanted to preserve the heritage and material culture of Gairloch parish. It is open from April to October.
Collection: With exhibits that range from fishing, milling and woolcrafts to whisky, geology and peat, the museum’s collection reflects the social history of the area. “Our objects are associated with the domestic and working conditions of the people of Gairloch parish,” says Thompson.
“They reflect the strong crofting and fishing traditions, the skills particular to this area and the challenges of living and working in a remote part of the country. The collection also reflects the amazing landscape and wildlife of Gairloch, and its geology.”
Highlights: “The Gairloch Pictish stone is the symbol of Gairloch Heritage Museum and perhaps our best-known exhibit,” says Thompson. Showing a fish and the lower part of a bird, it was the first Pictish symbol stone found on the West Coast mainland and is thought to be an early Class 1 symbol stone carved between 500 and 700 AD.
Many groups visit the museum specifically to see the original mechanism and Fresnel lens from the nearby Rudha Reidh lighthouse. “As well as being a triumph of industrial engineering, the lens is an aesthetically stunning object,” Thompson says.
Help at hand: Thompson is the sole full-time curator. The museum also has a project curator for 18 months, who is funded by Museums Galleries Scotland. “We have a magnificent band of volunteers – more than 50 in total,” Thompson says.
“They range from students doing Duke of Edinburgh awards to retired members of the community with an interest in local history. Our oldest volunteer is 90 years old, and he is very active.”
Budget: The museum receives “a small but significant amount” of funding towards its running costs from the Highland Council. Other sums are raised through entry fees (£4 adult, £1 child), memberships and donations.
“We run at least one fundraising event every month and rely on the support of the community,” Thompson says.
Visitors: 6,500 in 2014.
Sticky moment: “Our sticky moment is very much in the present,” says Thompson. “The Highland Council voted to reduce independent museums’ funding by 50% over the next three years, so the museums in the Highlands are working together to find ways to plug this gap. Many of us rely on this money for basics, such as paying our electricity bill, so there is a real chance that some museums will close.”
Survival tip: An active programme of exhibitions helps the museum stay in the public eye. “In order to survive in the current climate, we need to be able to run the museum on a shoestring, and keep our profile as high as possible in the community and beyond,” Thompson says.
Future plans: The museum has received round-one funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for plans that include a move to another local building – a former cold-war era radar station – where there would be room to start a community centre with, says Thompson, “a museum at its heart”.