Museum celebrates 40th anniversary
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Arran Heritage Museum will open its doors to all and sundry with free entrance on its open day tomorrow (Sunday).
This is an opportunity for everyone to go along and see for themselves not only the full range of exhibits, but the museum volunteers will be showing off and explaining the areas behind the scenes.
The archives, genealogy,and conservation volunteers will show how their work keeps the museum’s services up-to-date using best practice, and throughout the site there will be people on duty to answer questions about the museum.
The Isle of Arran Pipe Band will be performing at 2pm and throughout the day the Jazz Café Band will entertain in their inimitable style.
Here John Lauder tells the story of the birth and development of an island institution. For a number of years in the ’60s and ’70s there grew a feeling among some Arran folk, particularly those involved in the island’s tourist association, that the island merited and needed a museum to tell its history.
It was eventually in 1976 that Bess Macmillan, one of the prime movers of the idea, chaired the first public meeting of interested parties and the Arran Museum Association and the Arran Museum Trust were formed.
These two bodies were to be run by Arran residents and would be non-profit making charities, with running costs assisted by membership subscriptions and donations. Fund-raising was begun in earnest to raise sufficient capital to start the project once a suitable site could be found somewhere on the island.
Fortuitously at that time Rosaburn Smiddy on the outskirts of Brodick was put up for sale, and was purchased in 1976, followed a year later by the semi-detached cottage opposite and the adjoining stable block. It took a couple of years before they could all be prepared for public viewing, during which time many supporters donated items for display and toiled with paint-brushes and tools to create an attractive series of displays.
Opened
On July 13, 1979 the museum opened to the public albeit only the smiddy and shoeing shed, but this was followed over the next year or so by the stable block and cottage. Entrance to the museum was controlled by a small cabin alongside the main road.
The roadside bothy was acquired in 1981, and quickly the reception and a shop selling souvenirs and gifts. That was followed in 1982 by Rosaburn House which, after substantial renovation, was turned into accommodation for caretakers, a café, a special exhibitions room, and a base for the archives and genealogy departments.
The popularity of the museum was growing rapidly, and by the 1990s the operation was expanding, not least by the volume of artefacts being donated, so work began on planning an extension to the stable block. This would house an office, an archives department, a genealogy room, a workroom for the conservation team, enlarged storage accommodation for the burgeoning collection of items donated, and a committee room. It was eventually opened in 2002, and the vacated area in Rosaburn House allowed the café to be expanded.
Such was the success of the museum by now that it was decided to create a new shop and reception area at the northern end of the car park, thus releasing the former shop-reception building to be turned in to a specially designed geology room to reflect and demonstrate the unique geology of the island. This took place in 2007. The museum continued to grow and the latest expansion has been a further extension of the stable block, which in