Viscount Thurso to officially open new heritage hub at Dornoch’s Historylinks Museum
A £641,000 museum extension which aims to keep the story of Dornoch alive for both visitors and local people will be officially opened tomorrow.
Viscount Thurso, ex chairman of Visit Scotland, will cut the ribbon on a new extension to the town’s Historylinks Museum on Saturday, April 5, at 2pm.
It is the culmination of a huge fundraising effort by the charity which saw the final £25,000 needed to get construction started realised in just three weeks thanks to the generosity of local people.
Building on the success of Dornoch’s original museum which opened in 1998, the new Historylinks Heritage Hub is designed to be a vibrant community-orientated museum which not only attracts tourists but is also relevant and geared towards those living in the area.
Co-chairperson Alison Davies said: “Making the heritage of the area accessible to people from far and wide is a vital part of our mission and indeed we depend on visitor footfall for a healthy bottom line. But there are two sides to running an independent museum, and local community engagement is equally vital for the resilience of the museum going forward.’’
Already local groups are working within the new hub: producing a Dornoch tapestry, spinning and weaving, hosting sessions for groups with learning challenges, and setting up a living history group - recreating the life and times of Viking and Pictish eras.
Curator Lynne Mahoney said: “To give the community a sense of ownership of their heritage it needs to be relevant to a wide range of age groups and backgrounds. For example, young parents are exploring how heritage can be introduced to young children through a recent session entitled ‘Toys Old and New’ and older groups are meeting to reminisce about schooldays in the area. After a recent session at the Hub, an older resident of a local care home commented ‘I feel so proud to come from Dornoch – when can we do this again?”
Pola (14) commented: “Through getting involved at the Heritage Hub I made new friends and got introduced to many great opportunities that I would not otherwise have experienced, such as trying on period costumes and working with a team to create a textiles display for the museum”.
Lord Thurso will tour the exhibits including the Dornoch Civic Room which contains the original Charles 1 Charter of 1628 which created Dornoch as a Royal Burgh, and the newly-designed Golf Room where the story of golf from the 1600s to the present day is told with emphasis on the legendary golf architect and son of Dornoch, Donald Ross, who created more than 400 courses in the US.
