Cairndow centre will link generations with lottery cash
A Cairndow social enterprise has landed funding to create a heritage archive.
Here We Are, which sits in the Clachan development alongside the Tree Shop and Loch Fyne Oysters, has been promoting sustainable development and recording local history for the past two decades.
After an earlier unsuccessful bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, Here We Are, in the form of Dot Chalmers and Fiona Campbell, re-submitted an application in October last year.
Last week Here We Are announced it had been awarded £90,200 over two years.
Dot Chalmers said: ‘We are delighted to hear that we have been successful in our application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
‘This project will enable us to archive Here We Are, how it started and all the projects we have produced over the years.’
Since its opening in 2001, Here We Are has been involved in a range of projects and initiatives in the Cairndow area aimed at empowering the community, making it self-sustaining in the future while retaining vital connections to the past.
Projects have ranged from exhibitions on the village and community to renewable energy projects.
The centre has a wealth of information on Cairndow and the wider Kilmorich parish. Some years ago it undertook an ambitious project entitled Our Houses: Their Stories, a biography of the 107 Cairndow houses and of those who lived – and live
– in them, their livelihoods and occupations.
More recently, in a project part-funded by Historic Environment Scotland, staff and volunteers worked with archaeologists, Ardkinglas Estate and a number of shepherds to present Shepherding on Ardkinglas Estate in the 20th Century.
These projects and others have meant that the Here We Are loft has become jam-packed with invaluable records and other material.
With the help of the
Heritage Lottery Funding award, that precious archive can now be sorted out.
Dot explained: ‘We will design and develop a website that will display our collections, making them accessible to everyone. The project involves members of our community, school children and the elderly, whom we look forward to working with.
‘We would like to thank the National Lottery Heritage Fund for its support.’