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4m project to make museum accessible
ch is hoped to lead to the securing of rther £1.1m from the Lottery. he expected total cost of the evelopment, to be completed in 8, however, is estimated at up to £4m. nd ultimately it is hoped the public be galvanised to step up and raise remaining funds needed.
While the funds individuals could raise are important if not vital to the project, the public effort could have other benefits in terms of rightfully strengthening locals’ already steadfast sense of pride and connection with the museum and the regiment.
Colonel AK Miller, CBE, project director of the Thin Red Line Appeal said: “You only have to drive around and look at the area’s war memorials to get a sense of that link. Around 9500 people from this ara lost their lives in service to the Argylls, most of them in the First World War.
“One of the fundamental purposes of the museum is education of people of all ages. Two or three times a week we have a school through our doors and we have volunteers who also go out to schools with artefacts to engage with the pupils.
“I would defy any family who has lived in this area in the last 100 years not to have someone who served, anyone from a father or brother to a distant cousin or great-grandfather.
“This is also about future generations and people are very proud that this is a key part of not just Stirling’s story but the nation’s story.”
Colonel Miller outlined the proposals for the museum saying the ambition was to make it “radically different” from other regimental museums.
“We want to reflect the story of Scotland through the history of this great regiment; the Highland Clearances, the industrialisation of the west of Scotland, the expansion of trade from colonial times to the conflicts of the 20th Century, highlighting our close and long-standing territorial links.
“There are few places that the regiment has not been on more than one occasion in our 220 years of history – Europe, South Africa, north America, India, the Far East, Afghanistan – and there are stories to be told which will resonate both with those across our regimental area and the UK at large, to the many visitors that come to the museum from abroad.”