The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Regimental museums given prestigious honour
Establishments recognised by Scottish funding organisation
Military museums in the north and north-east have been given a prestigious award.
The Gordon Highlanders and Fort George’s Highlanders museums are among 10 of their kind to be collectively recognised by Museums Galleries Scotland.
The sites, which are all members of the Association of Scottish Military Museums, feature more than 160,000 objects of interest in their displays.
They will now be able to apply for funding from the organisation, which will mean they can hold more ambitious, national exhibitions across all the different locations involved.
The honour comes after a difficult two years for both facilities – in May, the Aberdeen site launched a fundraising campaign for £300,000 amid fears it would have to close its doors forever. And following a lengthy Press and Journal campaign the then defence secretary Sir
“We were absolutely delighted to hear about this”
Michael Fallon agreed to hold off closing the Highland barracks until 2032.
Yesterday representatives from both facilities attended a ceremony at the National Mining Museum in Newtongrange, near Edinburgh.
Ruth Duncan, curator of the Gordon Highlanders museum, said: “We were absolutely delighted to hear about this, it’s been the culmination of a lot of hard work.
“It will be a huge boost to our profile especially considering where we found ourselves earlier this year.”
The fundraising efforts have been a huge success, with the total cash raised surpassing the halfway mark in September.
Each museum had to be assessed in terms of the impact of their exhibits as a whole before they were given the award.
There are currently 249 other collections which are officially recognised across the country.
Anne-Marie Peckham, the curator of the Highlanders’ Museum, said: “We were just thrilled to find out about this.
“We always like to team up with the other regimental museums when we can and this allows us to do that,” she added.
The other regimental museums that have been recognised are the Cameronians, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the Black Watch, the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, Royal Highland Fusiliers, Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and the Royal Scots.