Museum looks to the future as well as the past

2017 added much-needed extra space for both the archives department and the capacity of the storeroom.

The museum was fortunate, in acquiring Rosaburn House, to also have a large lawn leading down to the Rosa Burn, and this has provided a lovely picnic area, a children’s play area, excellent space for a programme of special open air events every year, a workshop and storage shed for the maintenance squad, lovely flower beds, enough space for siting a bathing hut, and the building of an implement shed in which to display some of the large collection of farming machinery.

From the outset, the museum has been dependent on volunteers to run the operation, and over the years many folk have given of their time and expertise to do the mundane and the specialist work involved in keeping the premises and displays up to scratch. It is impossible to evaluate just how much the volunteers have contributed in so many ways to the museum’s success, and that continues today, when up to 20 folk can be at the museum on Wednesdays each week throughout the year. Teams and individuals provide essential maintenance to the buildings, deal with membership subscriptions and publicity, work on the attraction’s finances and administration, field visitor enquiries in the archives and genealogy sections, plan and create displays, and so on – the list is almost endless.

Achieving the coveted Scottish Tourist Board four-star status in the early 2000s was a great boost to the museum, whose policy has always been to keep admission charges as affordable as possible, particularly for families. The museum is totally self-financing, with no outside funding except for the occasional very generous donations or, very rarely, successful grant application for specific projects. It is enlightening to peruse the pages of the visitors’ books and to see the worldwide addresses from which visitors have come, and their very appreciative comments about the museum.

History may be the basis of the museum, but the future is always uppermost in the minds of those charged with running the organisation, and plans are always being considered for improvements. In 2018 the museum finances were in such good shape that the toilet block was completely renovated to the highest standards, and the café’s kitchen was refurbished and new catering equipment installed. Another large outlay last year was the purchase of a complete new nine-station computer network to

replace the outdated equipment which had been built up over the years. With a massive database of all the museum’s holdings in constant use, regular internet access, the popularity of emails as a means of communicating enquiries, etc., the museum, which has become such a successful fixture in the island’s many attractions, is now firmly into the 21st century.

01_B28museum01 Some of the volunteers who keep the museum running.

Chairwoman Ella Lennox picks up a prize for the museum, which finished runners-up in the 1981 National Heritage Scottish Museum of the Year award, only beaten by Hunterian Art Gallery at Glasgow University.

01_B28museum09 A demonstation of horseshoeing in the early days of the museum.

01_B28museum06 The resiting of the old paybox in 1989.

01_B28museum12 The museum as it looks today.

Extensive work being carried out on the cottage and stable block after it was purchased in 1977.

01_B28museum12 The museum as it looks today.

01_B28museum07 How the stable block at the museum used to look.

01_B28museum05 Sculptor David Taylor hands over his model of the Clachaig Man to chairman John Sillars in 1999. The model was created from the skull of a stone age man found at Clachaig above Kilmory in 1900. The original is at the Hunterian Museum.