Gairloch Museum ( gd, Taigh-tasgaidh Gheàrrloch) is an independent museum in the

Wester Ross Wester Ross () is an area of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland in the council area of Highland. The area is loosely defined, and has never been used as a formal administrative region in its own right, but is generally regarded as lying to the ...

region of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The museum is located in the Highland village of

Gairloch Gairloch ( ; gd, Geàrrloch , meaning "Short Loch") is a village, civil parish and community on the shores of Loch Gairloch in Wester Ross, in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. A tourist destination in the summer months, Gairloch has a go ...

, in Achtercairn. The museum moved to a new site in 2019- a former Cold War building that had been converted to house exhibitions. The following year the museum was named one of the five winners of the 2020 ArtFund Museum of the Year Award.

History

The museum opened in 1977, with the organisation set up as local branch of the Ross and Cromarty Heritage Society. This came about through the efforts of Sylvia Murdoch, her husband Morton Murdoch and others, such as

Kay Matheson Kay Matheson (7 December 1928 – 6 July 2013) was a Scottish teacher, political activist, and Gaelic scholar. She was one of the four University of Glasgow students involved in the 1950 removal of the Stone of Scone. Life Matheson was born ...

. This would later become the Gairloch & District Heritage Society and then the Gairloch & District Heritage Company Ltd. Gairloch Heritage Museum

They applied and were successful in converting part of the existing farm steading in Achtercairn to form a heritage museum and clubs rooms for members during the winter months for lectures and films, among others. The year later they applied and were successful in converting the second wing of farm steading to extend the museum as the current building was too small to house the exhibits. The library extension was added in 1987 and an extension for the Rudha Reidh lighthouse lens in 1988. The museum was created due to concern of possible damage to the growing collection of artefacts that had been donated by local people such as the Gairloch Stone, a Class I

Pictish Stone A Pictish stone is a type of monumental stele, generally carved or incised with symbols or designs. A few have ogham inscriptions. Located in Scotland, mostly north of the Clyde-Forth line and on the Eastern side of the country, these stones are ...

and thus they investigated means to protect it. The company wanted to provide a wet weather facility for tourists for them to appreciate aspects of Gairloch's past. Members of the company were interested in displaying objects relating to archaeology, farming, fishing, and domestic utensils, among others; those that showed the history of the West Coast. In December 2016 the Gairloch Heritage Museum secured a £725,600 grant from

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

to transform a nearby building that they could relocate to. The former Cold War building had been built in the 1950s as a military bunker to act as an anti-aircraft operations outpost, and latterly had been used as a roads maintenance depot. Completion of the project relied upon the Heritage Lottery Fund grant in combination with public and private sector trusts and community fundraising efforts. The museum board and volunteers raised £2.4 million to complete the project. Building work began in February 2018. While interior walls were removed and windows introduced to two foot thick walls, some features of that period were retained, such as the heavy blast doors. The newly rebranded Gairloch Museum was officially opened on 9 July 2019 by the

Princess Royal Princess Royal is a substantive title, style customarily (but not automatically) awarded by a United Kingdom, British monarch to their eldest daughter. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of th ...

. In October 2020, Gairloch Museum was named one of the five winners of the 2020 ArtFund Museum of the Year Award. ArtFund increased the prize money to £200,000 and changed the format of the award to five winners in response to the challenges faced by the museum sector during the

Coronavirus Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Displays and exhibitions

The museum contains various displays and exhibitions which focus on the

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

and

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

of Gairloch parish. Displays include: * The Poolewe Hoard - a rare Early Iron Age bronze hoard found in Poolewe * The original

Hyperradiant Fresnel lens Hyper-radial or hyperradiant Fresnel lenses are Fresnel lenses used in lighthouses. They are larger than "first-order" lenses, having a focal length (radius) of 1330 mm (52.36 inches). The idea was mentioned by Thomas Stevenson in 1869 and fi ...

from nearby

Rua Reidh Lighthouse Rua Reidh Lighthouse stands close to the entrance to Loch Ewe in Wester Ross, Scotland. History The name "Rua Reidh" is a semi-anglicisation of "Rubha Rèidh" meaning a flat headland. A lighthouse on Rubh'Re Point was first proposed by David ...

* A Replica croft house from over 100 years ago * An ancient

Pictish Pictish is the extinct language, extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited num ...

stone - the first and one of very few found on the West Coast of Scotland * Interactive displays on the natural history of the area.

References

External links

Gairloch Museum
- official site {{Authority control Museums in Highland (council area) Ross and Cromarty Local museums in Scotland Gairloch 1977 establishments in Scotland Museums established in 1977 Museum of the Year (UK) recipients