Securing future for artefacts of the past
Campaigner’s efforts to help save Crieff Monuments
clear view of the majority of respondents to the public consultation on the matter which the council undertook in 2014.
“The letter suggests that moving the monuments to the campus library would somehow be cost efficient.
“Culture Perth and Kinross could provide the most authoritative comment on this but, from our perspective, we would disagree strongly.
“The cost of physically moving the monuments would itself be utterly prohibitive in the present or foreseeable future.
“On top of the financial cost of moving the stones is the cost to the stones themselves as, being sandstone, which is quite a fragile rock, they won’t take kindly to being moved and are at great risk of being irreparably damaged.
“This is especially true of the Drummond Cross, being so tall and slender.
“With a museum on the same premises staffed by volunteers, public access with enhanced display arrangements would be enabled at a fraction of the cost of moving the monuments.”
Of the 234 responses received to the council’s consultation on the monuments at the time, a total of 130 said their preference was to keep the monuments at their present location, with 53 expressing a desire to move them to Strathearn Community Campus.
Speaking previously, a spokesperson for the local authority said: “Both the council and Culture Perth and Kinross have, in the past, been in very extensive dialogue with Mr Hamilton about his concerns.
“The decision to retain the town hall as the venue for displaying the monuments was taken after consulting with the local community in Crieff, the majority of which wished to see the monuments kept in the town hall.
“The council is satisfied that the current arrangements for display and care of the monuments are appropriate and proportionate, bearing in mind the need to ensure access to a large number of historic collections and sites across Perth and Kinross.”
I urge all who really care about these monuments to lobby for their relocation