Kilmartin collection named as one of Scotland’s top 50

Kilmartin Museum’s Prehistoric Collection has been unveiled as the 50th Nationally Significant Collection in Scotland.

Scotland’s Recognition Scheme celebrates, promotes and invests in Nationally Significant Collections beyond those held in our national museums and galleries. The Recognition Scheme is administrated by Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) on behalf of the Scottish Government.

The prehistoric collection at Kilmartin Museum is a unique collection of fundamental importance to understanding Scotland’s history. Many of the museum’s objects were discovered or excavated at the Neolithic and Bronze Age sites and monuments in Argyll’s Kilmartin Glen, near to where the Museum building is located. The museum’s setting in this landscape is important to the display of their collection, near the Upper Largie prehistoric site and overlooking an impressive cemetery of burial cairns.

To celebrate the 50th Nationally Significant Collection, chairman of the recognition committee, Dr Katie Stevenson, representatives from Museums Galleries Scotland, and Kilmartin Museum staff and supporters attended the award announcement last Thursday.

Varied and vast in the array of objects they contain, the 50 Nationally Significant Collections reflect centuries of effort to preserve and interpret Scotland’s past.

Dr Katie Stevenson said: ‘The Kilmartin Museum Prehistoric Collection is a remarkable asset to understanding the importance of this period and of the area to the earliest centuries of settlement in what is now Scotland.’

Dr Sharon Webb MBE, the curator and director of Kilmartin Museum, said: ‘We are thrilled that Kilmartin Museum has received recognition for its Prehistoric Collection. The artefacts are well worthy of this status, and it is a great achievement for the whole organisation that we have been successful.

‘Kilmartin Museum is soon to be transformed into a state-of-the-art visitor attraction and centre for archaeological engagement and learning. We are deeply honoured that our new galleries will open in 2022 with a Nationally Significant collection as their centrepiece.’