Heritage lottery cash for Dunollie

Dunollie Museum, Castle and Grounds has been awarded £114,854 National Lottery Heritage money, writes Kathie Griffiths.

The funding will be used for a year-long project focusing on gardens, making more community links and going digital.

Staff and trustees of the MacDougall of Dunollie Preservation Trust celebrating the award for the GLAD (Gardens, Links and Digital) project are now looking for new volunteers to help support and deliver the work.

In total the project will cost £120,597 and is due to start this March.

Dunollie GLAD will include a packed list of activities, including adding to and upgrading Dunollie’s Historic Woodland Grounds, providing community activities, as well as running family days out and putting on fun sessions for a younger age group. Three members of staff will form the Dunollie GLAD team, which will also include new jobs for a heritage garden leader and digital content assistant.

Trustees chairperson Alison McNab said: ‘We are very grateful to National Lottery Players for this grant.

‘Dunollie GLAD is one exciting way in which we can begin to rebuild, improve our facilities and get back to working with our local community following the Covid-19 pandemic.’

General manager Emma Sutcliffe added: ‘We can’t wait to get started. There are going to be lots of exciting things happening, so keep an eye on our website and social media pages. We are aiming for the team to get underway from March 2022, just before we open our doors to the public for our first full season since 2019.’

The MacDougall of Dunollie Preservation Trust is a registered charity set up in 1998 to advance the heritage of the historic castles and collections historically belonging to the family of the MacDougalls of Dunollie, Oban, Argyll. The Trust manages Dunollie Museum, Castle & Grounds, pictured, which is open to the public seasonally, and a busy community programme known as Dunollie Links.

Director for Scotland, National Lottery Heritage Fund Caroline Clark, said: ‘This is a fantastic approach to revitalising Dunollie Castle’s gardens and grounds and helping people enjoy more of this important heritage site. We are delighted that, thanks to National Lottery players, we are able to provide this significant support to the trust in their work opening up their woodland grounds and telling the history of the site.’